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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



PATMOS 



THE HISTORY 

OF THE 

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, 

THE 

TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST. 




By Rev. E. R. McGREGOR, A. M., 

GEORGETOWN, D. C, U. S. A. 
1890. 



SAINT LOUIS: 
JOHN BURNS BOOK CO. 
1890. 



Copyright by 
Rbv. E. R. MCGREGOR, A. M., 
May 25, 1888. 



THIS book is dedicated from lasting esteem to the 
memory of D. N. L., the Christian scholar who 
discovered the principle of analogy lying at the foun- 
dation of the interpretation of the visions of the 
Apostle John. 

(8) 



PREFACE. 



THIS History, as an exegetical and literary pro- 
duction, is sent forth without any distinguished 
name, to stand or fall by its own merits. If it be true 
it will stand forever; if not true, it will naturally sink 
into oblivion. 

The Author. 



INTRODUCTION. 



|ATMOS is a work that consists of an exegetical 



I interpretation of the Revelations by St. John the 
Divine. It is, perhaps, the most elaborate and particu- 
larized application and explanation of every figure and 
symbol named in this closing and wonderful book of 
the New Testament ever written, exceeding in detail 
of elaboration the "Apocalypse Revealed'' by Eman- 
uel Swedenborg. 

As an exegetical effort there is no question but a 
warp of harmonious consistency runs through its inter- 
pretations from beginning to end. This is its most 
difficult phase, and what would almost seem an impos- 
sibility to the average biblical student, considering the 
diversified forms of allegory and symbol employed by 
the Revelator. But, no difference whether the figures 
relate to the lamps, angels, seals, vials, trumpets or 
what not, the explanations never fail to agree with 
reason, and to weave in naturally and symmetrically as 
an unbroken concatenation, harmonizing every event 




(5) 



6 



INTRODUCTION. 



intended to be set forth with both the spiritual imagery 
represented and the prophetic temporal incidents fore- 
shadowed. 

Besides the exegetical and historical phases of the 
work, its literary character is of a very high order, 
showing the author to be a man of extended historic 
research and general reading, as well as possessing a 
command of classical English only possible in one 
thoroughly educated. 

We believe that biblical students, especially min- 
isters, would find the book a valuable accession to their 
libraries. If we mistake not, the profoundest commen- 
tators on this portion of the New Testament will, after 
reading Patmos carefully through, be forced to admit 
that Mr. McGregor has opened up many things in the 
Book of Revelation never dreamt of in their religious 
philosophies. — Extract taken from an advance review 
by A, Wilford Hall, Ph.D., LL.D., Editor of the 
Microcosm. 



INDEX. 



ALPHA. 
Paragraph 1, 

PAGE. 

Hypothetical Statement and Inferences — The objects of 
John's visions — Contain the thoughts of God . . .13 

Paragraph 2. 

What is revealed by the visions? — The principles of inter- 
pretation disclosed ... 16 

Paragraph 3. 

Problems to be solved: What is the agent that is the counter- 
part of the toison? — What is its historical reality? . . 22 

Paragraph 4. 

Application of the principles of analogy to tolsons promiscu- 
ously selected 26 



BETA. 
Paragraph 1. 

Patmos, General statement of — John saw and heard the 
crowning event of the history stated — John in Solomon's 
temple — The Son of Man gives John the key or principle of 
analogy — John in the doorway of the vision — heaven • 32 

Paragraph 2. 

Polycarp interpreting John's visions to his congregation . 40 

(7) 



8 



INDEX. 



GAMMA. 

Paragraph 1. 

PAGE. 

Description of tlie apostolic ministry 44 

Paragraph 2. 

Description of the schismatics • . . . , . ,48 

Paragraph 3 

Rise and progress of ambition — Description of the leaders . 62 

Paragraph 4. 

The so-called Christian leaders as persecutors . . . .67 

DELTA. 
Paragraph 1. 

The martyrs and their avengement 62 

Paragraph 2. 

The fruits gathered for heaven — The 144,000 — The number- 
less multitude — The dissenters — Christ's Kingdom dis- 
tinct from the church organization ..... 68 

EPSILON. 
Paragraph 1. 

The providential judgments on the persecuting power of 
Church and State — Subversion of the Western Roman 
Empire • 78 

Paragraph 2. 

Eastern Roman Empire overrun by the Mohammedans — The 
hierarchist persecutors of dissenters destroyed • . .83 

Paragraph 3. 

Subversion of the Eastern Roman Empire by the Tartar 
tribes — Seljukians, Moguls, Ottomans — Islamism in- 
stalled in the stead of the Christian hierarchy . , .94 



INi>£X. 



9 



ZETA. 
Paragraph 1. 

PAGE. 

The new preaching of the gospel by Martin Luther and others 101 
Paragraph 2. 

State of the Kingdom of Heaven spiritually and organically — 
Destruction of the heretics by the hierarchy aided by the 
civil powers — Defection from the hierarchy • . . 104 

ETA. 
Paragraph 1. 

Anticipations of the future . . . • . • . •117 

Paragraph 2. 

A view of the Christian societies as they were originally con- 
stituted — Their connection with the government of the 
Roman Empire — Their relation to Paganism — Tendency 
to centralization — Organization of Church and State . . 120 

Paragraph 3. 

The rise, development and character of the Roman Empire — 
The origin of the governments of Europe succeeding the 
Roman Empire — Their persecution of dissenters . . 129 

THETA. 
Paragraph 1. 

The origin and development of the Roman Catholic hierarchy — 
Its relation to the Kingdom of Heaven 137 

Paragraph 2. 

The dark ages for the Kingdom of Heaven . , , .148 

IOTA. 

Paragraph 1. 

Cursory review — General preaching of the gospel by 
heretics" — Predictions against the great ecclesiastical 
persecutor — Aims of dissenting heretics to destroy the 
universal hierarchy . . • • . . • . .151 



10 



INDEX. 



Paragraph 2. 

PAGE. 

The effect of the preaching of the gospel upon civil com- 
munities •••••••• • • 157 



KAPPA. 
Paragraph 1. 

Cursory review — Prediction of the annihilation of the perse- 
cuting powers embracing the civil and ecclesiastical govern- 
ments — The first judgment upon the hierarchists — The 
alienation of the civil" governments from the hierarchy — 
Deprived of revenues — The heads of government turned 
against the hierarchy — The French Revolution and the 
destruction of the French persecuting power — The spirit 
of liberty extending to other nations — Providential prepa- 
rations for the utter annihilation of the Roman Catholic 
hierarchy — Victor Immanuel reduces the hierarchy to a 
simple church organization — Survey of the field of history — 
The work yet to be done — New agencies to attempt to 
destroy the Kingdom of Heaven — Scientific infidels, 
Anarchists, Jesuits — The final struggle — Breaking up the 
nationalized hierarchies 160 



LAMBDA. 
Paragraph 1. 

Explanation of the toisons 187 

Paragraph 2. 

The fall of the Roman Catholic hierarchy described • • 195 



MU. 

Review — Christ personally closes the last scenes in the 
struggle with the enemies of his Kingdom — The spiritual 
agencies with him — Their co-workers, the human agencies, 
described — The character of the opposition — The United 
States a factor 205 



INDEX. 



11 



NU. 

Paragraph 1. 

PAGE. 

How persecution was first inaugurated in the Church and 
State — The destiny of Paganism — The thousand years or 
Millennial period 222 

Paragraph 2. 

The Evangelical leaders indorsed by the whole world — The 
Millennial period inaugurated — The character of the agen- 
cies that appear on the field of operations — Apostolic times 
reappear — The Kingdom of Heaven triumphant over man- 
kind — Satan, the spirit of all evil, reappears, and with his 
adherents is destroyed — PauPs description of these char- 
acters and times — These characters John's anti-Christs — 
The character of the Millennial period 226 



OMICRON. 
Paragraph 1. 

The Second Advent and its attendant events — The Martyr 
Saints a distinct community in the new world — The world 
restored to its original relation to the government of God — 
Description of the community of the Martyr Saints — De- 
scription of the new world ....... 240 

PI. 

Paragraph 1. 

Conclasion • • • . • • • 259 

Paragraph 2. 

The probabilities that the seven churches of Asia understood 
the method of interpreting the Apocalypse . . . .262 



PAT M OS. 



ALPHA. 

PARAGRAPH i. 

"^Jj^SSUM for the present, that the Apocalypse 
is a revelation from the Divine Being, addressed 
to the understanding and heart of man, we infer 
that it is understandable and appreciable by him. 

If the revelation is not made in any medium of com- 
munication of thought known to human literature, the 
principles of its interpretation must have been disclosed 
and developed in the body of the book itself or else in 
some other communication made by the Divine Being 
or both. The fact that no interpretation, reached by 
any principles of human literature, has been satisfac- 
tory to the practical understanding of man, suggests 
the search for other principles. The nature of the 
method of communication will first in order claim our 
attention. It is narrated that on opening the first seal, 
John in vision heard a voice saying. Come. He saw 
coming a man on a white horse, equipped with a bow, 
to whom a crown was given, and subsequently going 
forth conquering and to conquer. The divine thought 
here communicated, is evidently not in the words them- 
selves, for, when understood, they simply bring to the 

(13) 



14 



PATMOS. 



mind for contemplation various objects of thought as a 
horse of a certain color, a man belonging to a certain 
department of human life, riding the horse, bearing the 
implement belonging to that department, treated and 
acting characteristically of it. Depending upon the 
language for the divine thought we are left in the dark- 
ness where it found us. Then if there be any revelation 
made at all it must be found in the agents, objects and 
actions which the language describes. Upon opening 
the second seal, in the sight of John, there went out 
another horse that was red ; and power was given him 
that sat thereon to take peace from the earth ; and that 
they should kill one another; and there was given unto 
him a great sword. Here again the divine thought 
must be found, if at all, in the description given us by 
the language, agents, objects, character and actions ; as 
the horse, the rider, his prerogative and actions, the 
sword and its presentation to the rider. For interpret- 
ing the words and sentences according to the estab- 
lished principles of human language the contents of the 
description only are presented to us for contemplation, 
and no divine thought is disclosed to us by them. The 
consequences of opening all the seals are like phenom- 
ena ; human language describing specified agents, ob- 
jects, actions, and characteristics ; and unless contained 
in the things described we have no revelation at all. 

John, in vision, stood upon the sand of the sea and 
saw a beast rise up and out of the sea having seven 
heads and ten horns and upon his heads the name of 
blasphemy. He gives us a description of the character- 
istics of the beast, its actions, and the length of the time 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 15 

of its career. Following upon this he gives us a de- 
scription of another beast rising out of the earth, his 
characteristics, and actions in detail. Besides these 
descriptions we have nothing in the 13th chapter ; and 
if the revelation from the Divine Being is not contained 
in the objects disclosed, then we have no revelation at 
all. The entire Apocalypse is made up of similar de- 
scriptions with few exceptional parts. There is the wom- 
an clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, 
and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. Her de- 
scription occupies the I2th chapter; a description of 
Babylon and the woman sitting on the scarlet colored 
beast embraces two or more chapters; the scenes of the 
first resurrection, of the millennium and of the second 
advent, comprehend a large proportion of the last part 
of the book. Assuming that the Apocalypse as a whole 
embraces events and truths revealed from God they 
must be discovered in the agents, and scenes which 
John heard and saw in vision, and of which he has given 
us a description. But this is a mode of communicating 
intelligence unknown to human literature. No human 
writer has ever attempted the experiment of communi- 
cating his ideas by describing a scene in real or imag- 
inary life between which and his ideas there is no con- 
ventional connection whereby the reader may intelli- 
gently read his production. Besides literal words, writers 
often use figurative illustrations of already known facts 
and truths. Sometimes emblems, symbols and hiero- 
glyphics are used to convey thought or facts ; but al- 
ways there is a meaning agreed upon by the writer and 
the reader between the real and representative objects, 



16 



PATMOS. 



SO that the former may be readily determined by the 
latter ; but in the Apocalypse there is no knowledge on 
the part of the reader of the divine meaning of the agents 
and objects which the Revelator has put upon them in 
using them to communicate his thoughts. That is the 
very problem that needs solution. The principles of 
human methods of communicating intelligence can 
not aid us in interpreting the Apocalypse. Now if we 
discover in the communications, purporting to be made 
to man by the Divine Being, principles which, when ap- 
plied to the representative objects of the Apocalypse, 
unfold their meaning so that when compared with the 
reality in actual history which those objects beforehand 
purported to reveal ; and there is a fitness between the 
two that strikes the mind with the force of a mathemat- 
ical demonstration, the inference will be inevitable that 
the Apocalypse is a revelation from God. If we should 
go further, and, by the application of the same princi- 
ples determine that specified scenes of the Apocalypse 
indicate certain future events in human affairs, and 
when the events occur the reality is found to be a 
rational counterpart of the representative scene, we 
shall be convinced in our conclusions that the Apoca- 
lypse is a divine prediction of human events, and hence 
the word ot God. 

PARAGRAPH 2. 

Are there any principles disclosed in the Apocalypse 
itself, and in other parts of the sacred writings, that 
will enable us to interpret the visions of the Revelations 
made to John? But, before proceeding to look after 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 17 

these principles, we will determine what the Apocalypse 
purports to reveal. This is stated in the introduction. 
" The Revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave unto 
him to show unto his servants things which must shortly- 
come to pass." These things, in other words, are 
events in some department of the world's history. 

John was also directed to write the things which he 
had seen and the things which were then transpiring, 
and the things which should be thereafter. This em- 
braces events that came into existence under John's 
observation, up to the time of the vision ; the events 
that were passing from that date onward to his writing ; 
and events that should transpire in the future. The de- 
partment of history in which these events were to occur 
is also determined. What thou seest write in a book, 
and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia. *' 
The churches of Asia were interested in the events to be 
revealed, and therefore they embraced the past, the 
present, and the future history of the institution which 
Jesus denominated the Kingdom of Heaven. Then the 
vision scene described in the Apocalypse must be rep- 
resentative of scenes actually occurring in the Kingdom 
of Heaven. The latter must be the counterpart of the 
former. That being true, there must be such a connec- 
tion between them, that, the former being given, they 
can be naturally traced to the latter. 

In the book of Daniel we have visions very similar to 
those now under consideration. Revelations by the 
Divine Being are made by the use of agents, objects, ac- 
tions, relations and characteristics to Daniel. He wrote 
in a book what he heard and saw. Humao language is 



18 



PATMOS. 



used simply to describe the objects and scenes of the 
vision. We cannot predict of this revelation a literal 
or figurative character — as it is not made in language — 
for example: Daniel saw in vision four great beasts 
come up out of the sea. Of three he gives us a general 
description, their characteristics, appearances, doings 
and their relation to other beasts with which they came 
in contact. Of the fourth beast his description is more 
particular and in detail. '*It was dreadful and terrible 
and strong exceedingly and it had great iron teeth. It 
devoured and break in pieces and stamped the residue 
with the feet of it ; and it was diverse from all the beasts 
that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered 
the horns and behold there came up among them an- 
other little horn before whom there were three of the 
first horns plucked up by the roots ; and behold in this 
horn were eyes like the eyes of man and a mouth speak- 
ing great things. At a glance it seems that the mode 
here of communicating the divine thought is identical 
with that in the Apocalypse. If it be a revelation the 
objects of the description contain it. The agents and 
objects of the vision are representative of historical 
realities. The latter are a counterpart of the former. 
But we are not left in doubt about it, for we have the 
interpretation of the subject-matter of the visions given. 
**The four beasts are four Kingdoms which shall arise 
out of the earth. This shows us that the divine 
thought is conveyed to us through the use of the beasts. 
The interpreter proceeds : The fourth beast shall be 
the fourth Kingdom upon earth which shall be diverse 
from all Kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 19 

and shall tread it down and break it in pieces ; and the 
ten horns are ten Kingdoms that shall arise ; and an- 
other shall rise after them, and it shall be diverse 
from the first, and it shall subdue three Kingdoms; and 
it shall speak words against the Most High and think to 
change times and laws. This interpretation assures 
us that the objects and scenes in DanieFs vision em- 
brace whatever revelation there is. So in the Apocalypse 
the objects and scenes in John's vision embrace what- 
ever revelation there is in it. And the latter being of the 
same nature as a medium of communicating the divine 
will as the former, the principles applied to the inter- 
pretation of the one will enable us to discover the 
meaning of the other. But in the i/th chapter of the 
Apocalpyse we have the interpretation given of some of 
the objects and scenes of John's vision, which apparently 
proceeds upon the same principles as those applied to 
Daniel's vision. Says the interpreter : " I will tell thee 
the mystery of the woman and of the beast that car- 
rieth her which hath seven heads and ten horns : The 
beast that thou sawest was and is not . . . and 
yet is. There are seven Kings ; five are fallen, one is, 
and the other is not yet come ; even* it is the eighth and 
is of the seventh ; and the ten horns . . . are ten 
Kings which have received no Kingdom as yet. These 
shall make war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall 
overcome them. The seven heads are seven mount- 
ains where the woman sitteth. The waters . . . 
where the harlot sitteth are peoples and multitudes 
and nations and tongues. And the ten horns . . . 
(Kings) shall hate the harlot and shall make her desolate 



20 



PATMOS. 



and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. 
And the woman which thou sawest is that great city 
which reigneth over the Kings of the earth. Thus it 
is apparent that the principle that makes the beast of 
John*s vision a Kingdom is the same that discloses a 
Kingdom under the form of a beast in Daniel's vision ; 
and so of the rest. An analysis of these interpretations 
respectively must give us the principles upon which 
they proceed ; principles that are uniform in their na- 
ture and applicable to all like visions, objects and scenes; 
just as the rules of rhetoric are applicable to all figura- 
tive language. The first fact noticeable in the inter- 
pretations is that the vision object is the equivalent 
of the real object which it represents. That is : The 
rider on the white horse, under the first seal, is in his 
sphere what his counterpart reality is in his sphere. So 
that agent answers to agent, action to action, relations 
to relations and characteristics to characteristics. The 
fourth beast of Daniel's vision being the equivalent in its 
sphere of the fourth Kingdom that should arise on 
earth,in its sphere, the nature of the relations and actions 
of the former supply data for reasoning analogically to 
the character, relations and acts of the latter. If the 
beast was different from all other beasts ; if it was 
dreadful and terrible ; if it devoured and break in pieces 
and stamped the residue with its feet ; and had ten 
horns; then the fourth Kingdom would be essentially 
different in its constitution and polity from all the other 
Kingdoms. It could make the conquest of all the 
world ; obliterate all the existing governments ; bring 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 21 

the nations under its rule ; and originate ten new King- 
doms out of itself. If the scarlet colored beast of 
John's vision, was in its sphere the equivalent of a 
civil government ; and the woman which it carried was 
the equivalent of a civil organization like a city, in their 
spheres respectively, then the seven heads and ten 
horns and names of blasphemy furnish data or premises 
for an analogical inference that the civil government 
was one that had passed through seven constitutional 
forms in its history, and was eventually constituted into 
ten new and distinct governments. Also the carriage 
of the woman on a head of the beast, which it con- 
trolled, gorgeously arrayed; carrying in her hand a 
golden cupful of a destructive beverage; drunk with 
the blood of saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of 
Jesus; gives us premises for the analogical inference 
that her counterpart civil organization was maintained 
by the government ; and controlled it ; derived its 
wealth and power from it and corrupted its social and 
moral principles; moreover, it persecuted the follow- 
ers of Christ. 

Because the vision-agent is the equivalent of its coun- 
terpart-reality it may, for brevity in reference, be de- 
nominated a toiso7i (Gr. ro lao^J), The connecting link 
between the toison and its counterpart is analogy." 
Analogy implies that the toison and its counterpart 
belong to different spheres respectively. When the 
counterpart-agent becomes known, we reason analo- 
gically from particulars of the toison in its sphere to 
the particulars of the counterpart-agent in its sphere. 



22 



PATMOS. 



PARAGRAPH 3. 

The main problem to be solved, in the interpretation 
of the Apocalyptic visions, is : What is the agent that 
is the counterpart of its toison ? What does the rider 
on the white horse ; the woman clothed with the sun; 
the scarlet colored beast ; the woman riding on the 
scarlet colored beast represent respectively in literal 
language ? Knowing the leading counterpart-agent, 
object, or character, it would not be difficult to deter- 
mine other data incident to them. For example : 
Knowing that the seven golden lampstands (Rev. ist 
ch.) represent the seven churches of Asia ; the seven 
lamps their seven ministers ; one like unto the Son of 
Man in the midst of the lampstands, the Lord Jesus ; 
their relations and functions as church, minister, and 
Lord, are readily discovered. The lampstands hold the 
lamps ; the lamps give light and the man in their midst 
keeps the lamps supplied with oil, trimmed and burning. 
So the churches maintain the ministers ; the ministers 
preach the gospel ; and the Lord gives them the Holy 
Spirit. Knowing that the woman clothed with the sun 
is the toison of the primitive Christian church organiz- 
ation down to the era of Constantine the Great, the 
particulars incident to its history are readily traceable 
from the particulars given under the main toison. 
Knowing that the scarlet colored beast is the toison of 
a civil dynasty, the acts, characteristics and relation to 
other civil organizations of the latter are readily infer- 
red from the analogical premises of its toison. 

Since the Apocalypse is a prophecy relating to the 



THE HISTOIIY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 23 

religious institution established by the Lord Jesus and 
denominated by Him the Kingdom of heaven, in its 
relation to the civil and other organizations in time, 
generally its toisons are all traceable to it, and we look 
there for their counterparts. But we need the princi- 
ple by which we can connect a particular toison with 
its particular counterpart. We have this formula : giv- 
en the toison to find its counterpart-reality. It will 
have been noticed that in the interpretations already 
given, toisons drawn from the animal sphere find their 
counterparts in the civil department of life ; as the 
beasts of Daniel's and John's visions. Toisons in civil 
life are traced to their counterpart in the religious 
sphere ; as the man among the golden lamps by neces- 
sary inference represents the Head of the seven churches, 
the Lord Jesus. As also the distinguished character 
in Daniel, described as one like the Son of Man arrayed 
in a cloud of glory, to whom was given glory and a 
kingdom, is made the toison of the saints who were to 
be ultimately triumphant over all the persecuting pow- 
ers, and have the dominion of the world. Relying on 
this gradation of toisons in relation to their counter- 
parts from a lower to the next higher sphere, as uni- 
form we have the principle : That a toison drawn from 
the physical or animal sphere represents objects in civil 
or military life ; and toisons drawn from military and 
civil life represent agents and objects in the religious 
life; or to state the principle abstractly: A toison of 
a given sphere must be traced to its counterpart in the 
sphere next higher than it. 

Another fact is noticeable in these interpretations. 



24 



rATMOS. 



A single toisonic agent may represent a class or suc- 
cession of agents in the reality ; as one beast stands 
for an entire dynasty of civil rulers ; and the one like 
the son of man stands for an entire class of saints. 
According to this principle, a military character, riding 
his white, red, black, or green horse, is the toison of a 
class of leaders in the religious life. The woman 
clothed with the sun is the toison of a body of relig- 
ious persons. The woman riding the scarlet colored 
beast is the toison of a religious organization as a 
whole. 

A further problem presented for solution is : When 
the counterpart of the toison is determined in language 
what is its historical reality ? What kingdom in history 
is referred to by the beast with seven heads and ten horns? 
What Christian leaders are referred to in^the military 
character on the white horse? What religious organiza- 
tion is represented by the woman clothed with the sun ? 
and also the woman riding the scarlet colored beast? That 
problem is simple enough ; for having a full description 
of the counterpart of the toison in language we simply 
go into history and match it by inference. For illus- 
tration : We have a religious organization given us 
whose principles have so taken hold of the hearts of 
mankind that its adherents are found predominant in 
every department of the civil government. The su- 
preme ruler is dependent on them for his maintenance 
in power; success in his military projects and promo- 
tion of beneficent government. He, himself, finds it to 
be for his interests to protect and foster the organiza- 
tion. He selects from its pale his chief subordinates 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 25 



in authority, and the long catalogue of ofificials who at- 
tend to the details of his administration. The civil 
government, however, has been intimately connected, 
constitutionally, from time immemorial, with a form of 
religion in utter antagonism to this religious organiza- 
tion. But the latter has been steadily operating to 
secure a supreme ruler in the civil government as an 
adherent in heart and profession of its own principles. 
At length it is successful. The consequence is the old 
state religion is abolished and that of the successful 
organization adopted and becomes itself the state re- 
ligion. Thereupon a new religious organization is in- 
augurated of which the supreme ruler is the head, while 
the former gradually becomes obsolete and disappears 
from public view. Any student of church history 
will readily perceive the likeness of the Church of 
Christ and Roman Government in the time of Constan- 
tine the Great, to this description. This description is 
the result of converting the toisonic-particulars, inci- 
dent to the woman clothed with the sun, into language. 
Take another illustration: A military hero of exalted 
distinction is given us. He is eminently successful in 
all his campaigns. Conquest after conquest is made. 
A proud and grateful country demand that he shall be 
called home to their capital city, and personally receive 
their gratulations in a pageant of triumph, and be 
crowned with immortal honors. The grand fete ended 
he returns to his invincible legions to make new con- 
quests and extend the limits of his country. Who of 
the leaders in the kingdom of heaven or the Christian 
religion in its earliest days answer to this description ? 



26 



PATMOS. 



Who more successful in promoting the Christian relig- 
ion; more distinguished as preachers, teachers and 
writers of divine truth; more lauded by all Christian 
people for their virtues and successes; and who more 
indefatigable in carrying the gospel to unknown lands, 
than the Apostles of Jesus? As Julius Caesar was the 
most successful military leader and conqueror in old 
Rome, so Peter, James, John and Paul have no com- 
peers in the history of Christianity in glorious prestige 
and successful work. With these general principles of 
interpretation we may approach the visions of the Ap- 
ocalypse with some hopes of discovering the divine 
revelation communicated in them. 

PARAGRAPH 4. 

We now propose to apply the principles of inter- 
pretation, discovered in the communications given us 
by the Divine Being, to portions of the visions of the 
Apocalypse, promiscuously selected. The toisons un- 
der the fourth seal are : The rider on the pale horse ; 
his name Death; Hades following him; power given 
to him and Hades over the fourth part of the earth ; 
the earth; to kill; the sword; hunger; death; and 
wild beasts of the earth. 

This personage was no ordinary military character, 
not so conspicuously honored among the people as he 
who rode the white horse, but yet he attracted atten- 
tion, and inspired dismay, as the color of his horse 
would indicate. He was a grand hero who advanc ed 
at the head of his army on a white charger. He was 
a tyrant that rode the pale or green horse. His name 



THE HISTORT OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 27 

''Death'* revealed his character. Human life v^as a 
cheap article in his estimation. He was ruthless, un- 
pitying, a blood-thirsty monster.' So destructive was 
he in his career chat his victims could not be decently 
interred, but hades, like a swarm of voracious vultures, 
followed in his wake to receive them. He employed 
four methods of destruction. The executioner's sword, 
starvation, pestilence, and wild beasts. This toison 
belonged to the sphere of civil life. Its counterpart is 
to be found in the religious life ; and since the revela- 
tion relates to the Kingdom of Heaven in its connec- 
tions and relations civil and ecclesiastical, the toisonic 
agent is equivalent to an agent or agents in the Chris- 
tian organization who, in their sphere, bear an analo- 
gous character, pursue the same analogous career, de- 
stroying their religious enemies in analogous ways, 
leaving their religious victims in their wake to the cruel 
mercies of the spiritual fatuity. 

But more in detail. The toisonic sword is analogous 
to the instrument of excommunication ; the hunger is 
analogous to deprivation of religious knowledge, rights 
and privileges ; the death or pestilence, forcing upon 
their victims false tenets, sentiments, and practices 
subversive of all spiritual life, and the wild beasts are 
toisons of the civil authorities, who were employed to 
enforce ecclesiastical decrees. The earth is in contra- 
distinction to the sea. The beasts rising out of the sea 
are toisons of civil powers distinct from those of the 
land. The latter originated in a territory embraced by 
the sea. 

We have then civil powers exercising judicial and 



28 



PATMOS. 



executive functions, within the limits of the domain of 
a more comprehensive civil government. The latter 
was especially employed by the former, the ecclesias- 
tical despots, to suppress their opponents. With this 
. description in language we go to actual history to dis- 
cover what leaders they were that correspond to it in 
reality. 

Pestilence to the body is analogous to false beliefs 
as causes of spiritual death. Immediately upon the 
union of the state and the church, as one compact or- 
ganization, with Constantine the Great at its head, false 
beliefs were multiplied by the leaders of the Christian 
church and forced upon the masses of the people by 
imperial and ecclesiastical authority and power. Attrib- 
uting a divine virtue to an imaginary cross in the sky, 
by Constantine, even prior to his usurpation of the 
headship of the Christian church, received the indorse- 
ment of the Great Bishops; and the superstition gained 
general belief. During his reign also, the metropolitan 
of Jerusalem endorsed the pretended discovery of 
Christ's sepulchre and cross ; and the homage paid to 
them, and their divine virtue, have been relied on for 
these last fifteen hundred years. The same may be 
said of the "relics of the Apostles, prophets, martyrs, 
and other saints,'* to which idolatrous homage was paid 
at the same period. It was a natural and easy step 
from the worship of dead bodies to their departed spir- 
its. Hence the intercessory relation of the saints. 
The famous Basil taught : "Let your petitions be con- 
fided to the martyrs." Chrysostom preached: "The 
bones of the martyrs have a mighty energy. Let us 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 29 

entreat them to be our patrons." In this way the in- 
tercessory office of Christ was superseded and his 
sacrifice as the basis of the divine favor was annulled. 
The limits of this treatise will not permit of further 
quotation, only of simple reference. At this period 
the dogma of transubstantiation was originated. The 
council of Nicaea sanctioned the homage of images in the 
churches. Gregory Nanianzen, Ambrose and others, 
promoted the practice of prayers for the benefit of the 
dead ; and the belief that sin could be atoned for by 
penance, became universal. 

These fundamental errors, as superseding the gospel, 
answer to the pestilence; and their promoters, the lead- 
ing bishops of the Christian church, are the counterpart 
reality of the horseman of the fourth seal. 

The sword of the executioner is the toison of the ec- 
clesiastical decree of ex-communication. This weapon 
was freely employed from the first by the ecclesiastical 
authorities to force the false beliefs introduced — upon 
the dissentient people. In furtherance of the adop- 
tion of these destructive errors the pure word of life, di- 
rectly or indirectly, was withheld from the people by 
the same agents ; thus producing a condition of spirit- 
ual starvation corresponding to a famine, left in the 
wake of a marauding army, led by an unpitying, selfish 
monster. At length these superstitions were magnified 
into such importance by ecclesiastical ambition and ty- 
ranny that the civil power was brought into requisition to 
enforce a practical belief of them, just as a savage Cali- 
gula or Nero consigned their opponents to the arena of 
wild beasts. Thus the foremost leaders of both the 



30 



PATMOS. 



Greek and Roman hierarchies presented the real coun- 
terpart to the toison of the fourth seal. 

Our second illustration will be taken from the toisons 
of the sixth seal. They are, an earthquake; the earth, 
sun, moon, stars, the heavens, mountains and islands; 
and various phenomena connected with them ; and men 
with their actions and their various relations. The 
men belong to civil life. They are toisons of persons 
in the religious life. The other objects belong to phys- 
^ical geography. They are toisons of government, the 
nation constituting it and its officers, or generally they 
are toisons of objects and agencies in civil life. As the 
sea is interpreted to mean the unorganized mass of the 
people ; the earth, by parity of reasoning, stands for 
a nationality ; the heavens represent its constitutional 
government; the sun is its dynasty of supreme rulers; 
the moon their subordinates and the stars inferior offi- 
cers. The mountains and islands are its institutions. 
The men, Kings, great men, rich men, captains, mighty 
men, free men and bond men, represent ecclesiastics of 
various orders belonging to the nation. An earthquake, 
such as is here described with its effects and conse- 
quences to the land, the heavens, sun, moon and stars, 
is analogous to the subversion of a nationality by vic- 
torious armies. All civic institutions are dissolved ; 
offices abolished ; and the government itself over- 
thrown. Religious persons cannot expect exemption of 
their organization from the general wreck, and, in con- 
sternation and despair, make herculean efforts them- 
selves to escape the impending doom. Having deter- 
mined the literal objects and agents of the toisons of 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 31 



the sixth seal, we go to history to find the real objects 
and agents. The Apocalypse contains the history of 
the Kingdom of heaven, embracing the civil and re- 
ligious establishments with which it has ever been in- 
timately connected, especially those by which it has 
been opposed and oppressed. At the close of the de- 
scription of the sixth seal we have not only an intima- 
tion of the historical subject-matter of the vision, but 
of the providential reasons of the overthrow of the gov- 
ernment indicated by the toisons. These reasons are 
given in a language description. The men cried to the 
mountains and rocks : Fall on us and hide us from 
the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the 
wrath of the Lamb ; for the great day of his wrath is 
come and who shall be able to stand ? 

The religionists were conscious of guilty conduct 
against the Christian's God and against Christ. This 
conduct was persecution of his followers. 

What civil government has existed in connection 
with the Kingdom of God, intimately associated with a 
religion co-eval with itself, and had persecuted the fol- 
lowers of Christ, and had been during its civil wars ut- 
terly subverted in its constitution and superseded by 
a government founded on a different constitution, and 
whose religious organization had been entirely de- 
stroyed ? 

There is no doubtful answer. It was Pagan Imperial 
Rome, changed by Constantine the Great into Christian 
Imperial Rome, 



BETA. 



PARAGRAPH i. 

ATMOS is an insignificant island near the coast of 
Asia Minor in the ^gean Sea. It has ever been 
practically isolated from the rest of the world. 
It is treeless and almost barren, afifording scanty subsis- 
tence to the few hundred inhabitants who follow fishing 
as an occupation. These fishermen have ever been rude, 
ignorant, and superstitious. A more cruel prison could 
not have been found in the Roman Empire, for a man 
of ninety-five, of fully developed social instincts, re- 
fined morals, cultivated intelligence, and of lofty reli- 
gious aspirations. His life in the estimation of the tyrant 
Domitian would be of short but painful duration, ex- 
posed to the severe privations and hardships of such 
an exile. That was a day long to be remembered by 
the Patmosians when the Roman eagle turned his beak 
towards their shores, and sailed into their rocky bays ; 
and their surprise and awe was complete when, man- 
acled and walking between two soldiers, they saw a man 
in his Jewish kumis and libas, without sandals or fez or 
kuftan, his beard covering his breast, and his flowing 
locks as white as pearl, landed, unmanacled and left 
among them without a word of explanation. Only : 

(32) 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 33 



" Exiled by the Emperor/' Who was he, or what his 
crime, were veiled in mystery. 

Shall he be left to perish from hunger, or shall some 
heart, where yet glowed a mere spark of the divine, 
adopt him as a father, and treat him with filial tender- 
ness? Look into that face, note that countenance 
glowing with an unearthly radiance, and those eyes 
beaming like two stars of heaven. Is he a man or a 
god ? The answer comes in their own language. A 
man here for the word of God and for the testimony 
of Jesus Christ." 

The inference is a natural one that these simple 
hearted people came in time, through his teaching and 
holy example to reverence him as a father and love 
the religion for which he was banished from his home 
and friends; and that when on that wonderful Lord's 
day, he was in the spirit and dead to all things around 
him ; and appeared to them about to pass away, they 
watched with deepest solicitude in the little cabin which 
they had built him, for the last breath to escape him ; 
and were overjoyed when he awoke from his vision and 
smiled in their eager faces. That was a wonderful 
dream in which John traversed the entire history of 
the kingdom of God inaugurated in this fallen world 
by its Alpha and Omega, from its beginning to its con- 
summation, in its connection with the mightiest civil 
powers ever wielded by man, and the grandest ecclesi- 
astical organizations ever imposed on the human race, 
with which it struggled during the ages for existence, 
and which it finally mastered and filled the world with 
its own glory. What he saw and heard of the things 



34 



tATMOS. 



in relation to his own time, past, present, and future, he 
subsequently, when restored to his friends and home 
at Ephesus, where he could avail himself of parch- 
ment and stilorum, wrote a full description, and sent a 
copy to each of the seven churches of Asia. 

In his introduction the conclusion of the whole is 
reached in a single sublime sentence : Behold He 
Cometh with a cloud ; and every eye shall see Him and 
they also which pierced Him, and all kindreds of the 
earth shall wail because of Him. Even so. Amen.*' 

In the midst of a mountain in Northern Galilee, 
more than sixty years before, he had a day vision of 
a partial view of this same historical event. The cloud, 
the element that clothes the substantial form of the 
Divine Being, lowered upon his company, while the 
face of the Master shone like the sun, and his raiment 
was white as the light ; the premonition of his final 
coming in the same cloud of glory. 

He wrote what he saw and heard ; but what he saw 
and heard were unnatural and incongruous objects. 
Military heroes, with their warlike trappings ; souls of 
martyrs under an altar ; an earthquake with its accom- 
panying incidents ; a multitude which no man could 
number ; in white robes, with palms in their hands, 
standing before the Divine Throne ; a hurricane burst- 
ing upon the earth ; a volcano spouting its lava into 
the sea ; a star falling from heaven, poisoning the 
fountains and rivers ; darkening a third part of the sun, 
moon and stars, a fallen star that opened the bottom- 
less pit, loosing the angels bound in the Euphrates ; 
great voices, saymg, " The kingdoms of this world are 



tHE HISTORY OJ^ THE ^:1NGD0M OF HEAVEN. 85 

become the kingdom of our Lord and its Christ, and 
He shall reign forever and ever/' What information 
would the seven churches gain from these objects con- 
cerning the kingdom of God ? " Blessed/' writes John, 
" is he that readeth ; and readeth with attention that he 
may understand the words of this prophecy ; for the 
divine talisman that shall turn all these dream objects 
into their realities is furnished him." 

Carried in his vision back in time to Solomon's 
Temple, as he had dedicated it, he finds himself in the 
holy place in the presence of the golden candlestick. 
It is lighted up and glowing with its ancient splendor ; 
but it had an addition to it wonderful to behold ; a 
person standing among the seven branches, more re- 
splendent in appearance than Solomon in his royal 
robes, glittering with sparkling jewels. 

It was the figure of a man, like the Son of Man, with 
whom he had been on terms of holy and loving inti- 
macy before the crucifixion. He was in a priestly robe, 
fastened by a golden girdle. His headdress and hair, 
like wool, were as white as snow ; his eyes like a flame 
of fire ; his feet like brass glowing in a furnace ; his 
voice was like the musical cadence of many streams 
flowing together ; a two-edged sword issued from his 
mouth, and his countenance was like the sun shining 
at noonday, and in his right hand glowed seven stars. 
In one short sentence, He disclosed the main principle 
by which the seven churches could unravel the mys- 
teries of the vision, and read in literal terms the his- 
tory of the kingdom of God. The seven candlesticks 
are the seven churches, and the seven stars are the 



36 



PATMOS. 



angels of the seven churches. With this hint it may- 
be inferred that the Son of Man is the Lord Jesus as 
their high priest, sustaining the ministers and uphold- 
ing the churches, while the former shed moral light and 
the latter maintained and supported them in their re- 
lation as Christ's messengers. The candlestick, the 
stars or lights, and their attendant and keeper, are in 
their sphere what the churches, the ministers, and the 
divine Mediator, are in their sphere in relation to each 
other. Read and reason analogically, and the vision 
objects will be disclosed in literal language. 

Just above the starry canopy of our world was pre- 
pared, for the occasion of John's vision, a second 
heaven without any earth, crowded with substantial 
forms, invisible to a physical eye, but distinctly seen 
by the eye of the soul. There was a throne, on 
which sat the Supreme Being; not a material throne, 
but yet a throne in form like a material throne ; nor 
was the form of the Supreme Being physical, but 
substantial — more ethereal than light; a real form, 
discernible by the eye of the soul. Of the same 
nature were the forms of the Lamb in the midst of the 
throne ; the rainbow about the throne ; the 
seats; the elders in white raiment, wearing 
crowns of gold ; the seven lamps of fire, — the sea of glass, 
the animals full of eyes, each with six wings, and the 
ten thousand times ten thousand angels. While view- 
ing the objects in Solomon's Temple in rapt emotion, 
his attention was attracted by an opening like a door- 
way in the canopy above him. A voice called him, 
"Come up here and I will show you the events to 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 37 

come.'* Instantly he stood on the threshold of the 
door. He was now in the presence of the heavenly 
agencies to be engaged in conducting the history of the 
kingdom of God on the earth ; — the Supreme Being, the 
Lamb, the four and twenty elders, the four nameless 
animals, the angels, and the Holy Spirit. In full view 
from his position was an earth with its seas and rivers 
and fountains, its mountains and islands and cities, and 
its animals and people, and stretched over it was a 
firmament, with its sun, moon, stars and meteors. 
Here was the theatre where was to be enacted the 
drama of the kingdom of God. Where he stood he 
could distinctly hear the mandates of the King, and see 
the agents move off to fulfill them. 

He could witness the effect of the causes set up by 
them as they developed in the earth, or sea, or sky, be- 
low him. When he appeared in the door-way of 
the vision — heaven, his ears were saluted with 
music, and song, and acclamations of praise. The 
superior powers, full of highest wisdom and ubiquitous 
in their flights, never pausing for a moment, exclaim- 
ing : " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty which was 
and is and is to come; " and the elders taking up the 
refrain : " Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, 
honor, and power, for thou hast created all things and 
for thy pleasure they are and were created.'* The 
"things which were to come," which John was to see 
and hear and write in a book, had already been fore- 
seen, pre-arranged in the order in which they were to 
occur, and written out in the King's book. As yet to 
him alone were they known. By him alone could they 



38 



PATMOS. 



be made known. There was not a created intelligence 
existing that was adequate to the task of revealing 
them. The mightiest angel in the King's presence 
went forth and challenged all the intelligent beings in 
heaven, earth, and hell, to open the book, or even to 
look on it. It was written in seven chapters, each writ- 
ten on rolls of parchment, and sealed with the King's 
seal. John was overwhelmed with grief at the fact. 
His tears told his disappointment, because the possi- 
bilities of the future were locked up forever. Because 
no man could open the book and disclose its contents, 
it must be returned to the archives of infinite wisdom. 
So reasoned John. But a royal attendant of the King, 
one who had been exalted to that position from a con- 
demned sinner of the earth, chided him for his tears. 
We have found one, said he, who is adequate to open 
the book, and disclose its contents. You know him. 
He is the perfection of strength and wisdom developed 
from the tribe of Judah. At once the Creator and the 
offspring of David. John once wrote of him, **In 
the beginning was the word, and the word was with 
God and the word was God. The same was in the be- 
ginning with God: . . . and the word was made flesh and 
dwelt among us;" and the first time he saw him his 
teacher John called his attention to a stranger from 
Gahlee passing by and said behold the Lamb of God 
that taketh away the sins of the world.'* He can open 
the book. And there he stood before John's eyes in 
the midst of the throne ; a Lamb — once slain ; now liv- 
ing in the almightiness of the Supreme Father, and the 
inhnite wisdom of the Spirit. Although the Son of Man 



THE HISTOliY OF THE KINGDOM OF HKAVEN. 39 

because of his humiliation from a divine to a human form, 
and expiation on the cross, now he has a name which 
is above the name of every creature, human or angehc. 
**He is worthy to open the book and loose the seals 
thereof." He shall disclose to John in vision the his- 
tory of the kingdom of God. 

That was a signal for joy unspeakable and full of 
glory, when the Lord and Leader of the sanctified hosts 
in heaven took precedence of the loftiest angel, in his 
character of Lamb of God, by making himself equal 
with God, in undertaking to disclose the future of his 
kingdom on earth, and by his power and wisdom to 
conduct it to a triumphant consummation. They, with 
each his golden harp and vials full of odors gathered 
as they came up from the praying groups of earth, sing- 
ing the new song : " Thou art worthy to take the book 
and open the seal thereof for thou wast slain and hast 
redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred 
and tongue and people and nation, and hast made us 
unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on 
the earth;'' and with them the ecstatic John heard the 
angels joining in the chorus to the number of ten thou- 
sand times ten thousand ; " Worthy is the Lamb that 
was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, 
and honor, and glory, and blessing; " and the strains 
were heard throughout universal creation, and from 
every creature from every world, came responses 
"Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto 
Him that sitteth upon the throne and untcf the Lamb 
forever and ever/' The superior sanctified powers 



40 



PATMOS. 



shouted, Amen; and the sainted kings and priests of 
God fell down and worshiped Him that liveth forever 
and ever. 

PARAGRAPH 2. 

When Polycarp, the angel of the church of Smyrna, 
to whom John sent a copy of his book, entered upon 
its study, he met with a serious difficulty in applying 
the analogical principle of interpretation to the agen- 
cies and objects of the vision heaven. There was an anal- 
ogy on the whole between the vision heaven and the 
real heaven. 

He could reason from the former to the latter. 
What the vision agencies are in their sphere in their re- 
lation to the vision earth and firmament, the real heav- 
enly agencies are in their sphere to the real earth and 
firmament. But there was no analogy between the Su- 
preme on the vision throne and the Supreme on the 
real throne ; nor between the angels of the one and the 
angels of the other; nor between saints and saints re- 
deemed by the blood of the Lamb ; nor between the 
slain Lamb and Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. It must 
have occurred to him that the Supreme being could 
have no personal analogical representative ; nor could 
the Divine Son, nor could the angels and glorified saints. 
They must stand in their own persons for themselves ; 
consequently the principles for interpreting the various 
objects, offices and acts brought to view in this part of 
the vision were not revealed to John, as they had no 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 41 

need to be. The vision throne was to be interpreted 
as an emblem of the reahty ; and describing religious 
truth and facts under emblems was a method well 
known to Polycarp. He could read in the vision 
throne the sovereignty of the Supreme Being; in the 
appearance like a jasper and sardine stone, the varied 
and indescribable splendors of the Ruler of heaven and 
earth ; in the rainbow about the throne, the conduct 
of the divine sovereignty in connection with the history 
of the kingdom of heaven on the principle of peace and 
promise. He read in the seats about the throne and 
the elders on them, the employment of various orders 
of sanctified intelligences as his agents to execute his 
decrees ; and in the animals in the midst of the throne, 
superior sainted powers, classified according to their 
capabilities and functions, in immediate attendance 
on the sovereign, endowed the one class with unusual 
intellectual powers, another with quick instincts, an- 
other with unequalled intelhgence, and a fourth with 
lofty aspirations and fearless daring, and all four in 
possession of consummate wisdom, and ever ready for 
any service anywhere required by the Supreme. 

He saw in the crowns worn by the elders the royal 
relation sustained by the ministerial saints to the divine 
government, as heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, 
to reign with Him as kings and priests forever ; and in 
the casting their crowns before the throne the ac- 
knowledgment of the divine authorship of their digni- 
ties. In the seven lamps of fire burning before the 
throne he saw, as interpreted, the Holy Spirit, as the 
illuminating force that would insure success in all the 



42 



PATMOS. 



grand enterprises undertaken to promote the progress 
of the kingdom of heaven. In the book with seven 
seals he saw the unrevealed history of the kingdom of 
heaven. In the Lamb in the midst of the throne he 
recognized the Son of God in the capacity of mediator 
of the sinful world; on the right hand of God, forever 
living to make intercession for it on the ground of His 
sacrifice, wherefore the power of the divine govern- 
ment is wielded for the progress and final triumph for 
the kingdom of heaven. In the seven horns and seven 
eyes of the Lamb he read that the mediator was 
clothed by the supreme government with the divine at- 
tributes and endued with the holy spirit, and hence his 
qualifications not only to reveal the events, but to con- 
duct the history of the kingdom of heaven to its suc- 
cessful consummation. 

Reading on, he learned to his great delight that the 
twenty-four elders and the four classes of nameless in- 
telligences were saints from the kingdom of God, who 
had finished their course on earth, beginning with 
James the Just, whom Herod had beheaded onward to 
his time, apostles, preachers and private Christians, 
chosen to be the special agents to conduct, under the 
leadership of Christ, the history of the kingdom of God. 
They had been redeemed to God by the blood of 
Christ out of every kindred and tongue and people and 
nation, and made unto God kings and priests to rule 
on the earth. He learned, also, the interest which the 
kingdom of God excited among all intelligent beings in 
all worlds by their ascriptions of " blessings and honor 
and glory and power to God and the Lamb," 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 43 

On the whole, there was disclosed to him, through 
these emblems, the condition of the children of God in 
the invisible state of existence; one of ceaseless activ- 
ity ; clothed with substantial forms, through which they 
wield the higher forces of nature for affecting individ- 
uals, ecclesiasticisms, and states and masses of people 
on earth. 



GAMMA. 



PARAGRAPH i. 




OHN was directed by the Son of man in the midst 



of the golden candle-stick to write in a book 



what he saw and heard. He saw the Lamb hold- 
ing the book, break one of the seals and unroll the 
parchment. Instantly he heard a thunder voice call as 
though commanded by the Lamb, Come ! Looking 
in the direction of the vision — earth, John saw a white 
horse with his rider, who was carrying a military bow ; 
to whom a crown was presented and thereupon he went 
forth conquering and to conquer. That was the reve- 
lation made for the benefit of the seven churches in the 
first book. We may imagine how keenly the angels of 
the churches analyzed the communication and scanned 
it in all its bearings, and then looked into the earliest 
history of the Kingdom of heaven for its counterpart. 
The rider was evidently a mihtary character of no ordi- 
nary distinction. He reminded the investigators of 
Julius Caesar, the most distinguished of Roman warriors. 
He had been to the war fighting the enemies of his 
country. Every battle gave him the victory. The 
white war horse, carrying the great general, as he rode 
along his lines, was the signal for acclamations of admi- 



(44) 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 45 

ration. He had received a mandate from the senate to 
come home to his capital city, and receive the gratula- 
tions of the people in a grand triumph. The triumphal 
arch had been erected at the entrance of the city with 
a platform built over it. The whole decorated profusely 
with flowers and evergreen vines and boughs. Here 
were stationed twelve beautiful virgins arrayed in white; 
one of them holding a crown of laurel. 

As the herot on his white charger with his bow slung 
over his shoulder, approached the city, the people by 
thousands went out to greet him ; and as he rode 
through the archway the laurel crown was dropped 
gracefully upon his brow. Did John see this scene in 
vision? How was it he saw a crown given to the 
rider on the white horse, if not? And whence did 
he see him retire and go forth again to make new con- 
quests and gain new trophies ? It was to the ministers 
of the seven churches a Caesar or a Pompey. But what 
was his counterpart in the Kingdom of heaven? The 
principal of analogy will determine that. Analogy can 
only subsist between agents and agents, and never be- 
tween agents and inanimate things. It also obtains be- 
tween inanimate objects, between leaders, between ac- 
tions, between like entities in the different spheres. In 
this fact the problem finds its solution. Determining 
once the counterpart of the leading vision — ^character, 
the discovery of his or their peculiarities, characteris- 
tics, relations or any other circumstance, incidental to 
them, is at once patent ; for they are exact equivalents 
in their respective spheres. When it is determined 
that the seven golden candle-sticks are the equivalents 



46 



tATMOS. 



of the seven churches, each branch and the candle- 
stick as a whole, the equivalent of the union of the 
seven churches as a complex organization of which John 
was the Apostolic overseer, the inference is direct that 
a star or light is the equivalent of the ministerial moral 
light of a church ; that the keeper of the candle-stick 
who kept the lights trimmed and burning, was the toi- 
son of the agent, the Alpha and Omega, who supplied 
the divine grace to render the church competent to ful- 
fill their mission. A man as sagacious as Polycarp would 
grasp the principle as here presented to be used in the 
interpretation of the agents, objects and acts of the first 
seal. The rider of the white horse was a leader of 
great armies. He is the equivalent of the leaders of 
the Christian hosts. His presence on his white war 
horse was unusually grand. So the Christian leaders 
whom he represented were distinguished for every ex- 
cellence, moral and intellectual, above any class that 
were ever connected with the Kingdom of Heaven. 
The bow was the principal implement in battle, so the 
gospel was the moral force that conquered human 
hearts and brought them to bow to the authority of the 
Son of God. Crowning the hero amid the acclamations 
of the populace, finds its equivalent in the renown ac- 
quired by eminent success in every age and among all 
Christian people, by these Christian leaders. Nor did 
Csesar rest satisfied with past success and the pageant of 
a day ; he continued his campaigns until he became con- 
querer of every people opposed to the Roman sway. 
So these grand Christian leaders rested not until the 
Kingdom of heaven was established upon an enduring 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 47 



foundation, and a system had been organized for ex- 
tending its influence over the world. We have in this 
revelation sixty-five years of the history of the King- 
dom of God, from the day of Pentecost to the vision of 
John in Patmos. The Christian leaders are the Apos- 
tles, their assistants and successors in the work, as Tim- 
othy, Titus, Mark, Apollos and others - like them who 
opened fields for preaching the gospel, and founded 
Christian societies in all the known world. Moreover, 
in this description we have the type of all true leaders 
in the Kingdom of God, who have gone forth and who 
shall continue to go forth conquering and to conquer, 
until the Kingdoms of this world shall become the 
Kingdoms of our Lord and of Christ. We also have 
the prediction that under the leadership of such charac- 
ters the gospel shall be promoted until it shall be 
for a witness to all nations and usher in the millennium. 
Their work shall present the appearance of a web of 
cloth. The warp composed of yarn produced by the 
divine ingenuity of the same consistency and quality 
from beginning to end. The woof of the first part of 
golden threads woven in by their own skill. Then, for 
some measures, mixed with different kinds of material 
injected by other hands. Sometimes the threads of 
gold, for a long space almost entirely disappearing then 
again appearing more frequent, a thread of one then of 
the other, now a quarter of a yard of gold, now a span 
of dark filling, the gold spaces becoming more frequent 
and larger until finally the fabric terminates wholly in 
gold, like the first part. 



48 



PATMOS. 



PARAGRAPH 2. 

When the second seal was opened the kaleidoscope 
was turned and the scene entirely changed. As the 
first period of history was under the supervision of the 
first order of superior intelligence so the second period 
was managed by the second order, who called : Come.'' 
Following in the wake of the white horse John saw 
approaching a red horse. His rider was also a great 
military leader. He had also been waging war against 
the enemies of his country until he had magnified his 
leadership into vast importance and he claimed supe- 
riority over generals who were his competitors. He 
marched home to the capital of his country and de- 
manded not only the wreath of immortality, but the 
crown of empire; an edict was issued by the supreme 
authorities confirming his claims, giving him the power 
to make them good. The result was a general massa- 
cre of his opponents which created a civil war. Suc- 
cessful in this by acclamation the people awarded him 
supreme sovereignty, with the power of life and death. 
This seems to be the scene that John saw in an ex- 
panded form. If not, how did he see given to the 
rider on the red horse power to take peace from the 
earth ? and how did he witness the scenes of a civil 
war in which men killed one another? and how did he 
see given to him a great sword ? Who gave it to him, 
by what authority, and where ? Here then is another 
leader of great armies. His trappings are not so con- 
spicuous as those of the former character; nor the 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 49 



pageant in his behalf so grand. He was not the idol 
of a grateful people, but was a mere partisan leader, 
who could only accomplish his ends of ambition 
by crushing out all opposition, an undertaking he en- 
tered upon just as though his fellow-citizens were sav- 
age foes. The ministers of the seven churches could 
detect in the description a Roman military leader, who 
had, more than once within the past hundred years, 
assumed this role ; but who was the rider on the red 
horse in the kingdom of God? Had any analogous 
leaders yet appeared among Christian people? Cer- 
tainly Paul had warned the Corinthians against men of 
analogous aspirations among them. To the Thessa- 
lonians he wrote the mystery of iniquity doth already 
work.'* And that mystery consisted of men opposing 
and exalting themselves above all that is called God ; 
men ambitious to rule ; and John himself had written 
to them already that anti-Christ had made his appear- 
ance among them. 

They were men of ambitious and supremely selfish 
dispositions, who had never been regenerated, — who 
came among the Christian people perchance they 
might gain the future benefits of their religion, and man- 
age things to their own liking in the present; men 
who unfortunately gained a leadership in the kingdom 
of God. There was a class then existing well known 
to the minister at Ephesus, called the Nicolaitons, 
whose deeds were hateful to him that walked in the 
midst of the golden candlesticks. There were also the 
Balaamites in the church in Pergamos, and Jezebel in 
the church in Thyatira. Their aims and dispositions 

4 



50 



t»ATMOS. 



were analogous to those of the rider on the red horse. 
Here were the germs of future harvests in the kingdom 
of God. 

The ministers of the seven churches by this toison 
could look into the future, to them, of the kingdom of 
God, and discover what we have already seen in his- 
tory, — the rise of leaders who have created divisions 
among Christian people; organized parties, instituted 
persecution, until the kingdom has been well nigh rent 
into fragments. This seal comprehends especially the 
period of the history of the kingdom of God from the 
time of the Apostles to the organization of church 
and state,'' under Constantine the Great, the first Chris- 
tian emperor of the Roman empire. As the power of 
the rider on the red horse was the result of a gradual 
growth, so the position which his counterpart leaders 
in the kingdom of God gained was an attainment of 
generations. It begun in ambition and conceit. 
*'They loved the pre-eminence," and assumed their 
own competency to be leaders, promoted parties in 
their own interests, made up of people whose natural 
tendency was to worship the creature more than God 
the Creator,'* and of course came into collision and con- 
flict with the divinely constituted state of things. When 
societies begun to be formed of the members of the 
kingdom of God for the convenience of government 
and the distribution of charity, leaders became neces- 
sary as executives of the will of the people. At first 
these leaders were full of faith and the Holy Spirit, 
and were promoted to their positions for that reason. 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 51 



Towards the close of the apostolic period, ambitious 
and conceited men now and then were elected to 
leadership, and, as a natural development of human 
nature, their wills were made predominant in the con- 
duct of the societies. 

In times speculative minds suggested changes in the 
Christian thought as received from the Apostles. This 
created controversies, and led to the organization of 
opposing societies : and ultimately to the segregation 
of the representatives of the conflicting views, forming 
great parties. These parties, the Arians and the Athan- 
asians, Constantine the Great found in deadly conflict, 
and he made it his business as soon as his empire was 
settled, to settle this conflict. Readers of history well 
know how the Arian heresy developed and grew into 
such vast proportions as to control a majority of the 
societies composing the Christian church. It was or- 
ganically suppressed by imperial power. It still lives 
in spirit and will be the inspiration in the last great 
agency whose adherents shall be destroyed by the 
presence of the Lord and the brightness of his com- 
ing. 

We have cited one class of sectaries in the kingdom 
of God, as answering to the toison of the second seal. 
History delineates many other classes, less conspicu- 
ous perhaps, but manifesting the same characteristics; 
ambition and conceit, excited into activity by the fit- 
ting occasion and their course made successful by er- 
roneous belief or fanaticism. 



52 



PATMOS, 



PARAGRAPH 3. 

It is not to be supposed that John grasped the signi- 
ficance of the contents of the seal while in vision. He 
was intent to see and hear the phenomena as they pro- 
ceeded ; as the command Come/* was uttered by a 
superior intelligence, and the events progressed too 
rapidly to be contemplated in connection with their 
counterpart-reality. No sooner had the scenes connect- 
ed with the red horse passed from view than the third 
superior intelligence again said : Come/' and the in- 
formation contained in the third seal was seen in the 
toison of a black horse. His rider was not a warrior. 
His appearance on his black horse was as conspicu- 
ous in contrast as the hero on his white charger. 

He had been inaugurated into sovereignty of his 
country and was now in the act of issuing decrees af- 
fecting vitally its welfare. He was riding among the 
masses of his subjects, carrying in full view a pair of 
balances in his hand. As he was under the direction 
of the heavenly agencies, a voice from their midst was 
heard instructing them in their duty. 

The supreme magistrate was to be placed under a 
restraint in his dealings with his people. In levying 
taxes to support his government there should be a show 
of justice and an apparent equivalent for the amount 
paid into his treasury ; hence every measure of wheat 
and barley is weighed and the stipulated penny paid ; 
and the wine and the oil were to be so guarded or con- 
cealed that he could not levy taxes on them. He 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 53 



might take the wheat and the barley at his own price, 
but he could not obtain the wine and oil. Taxation of 
the necessaries of life, although oppressive and de- 
structive of the state, was permitted, but the retribu- 
tion would come by that destruction. This toison was 
necessarily left unexplained in the hands of the angels 
of the churches. They knew something of the sys- 
tems of taxation invented by Augustus Caesar, and his 
immediate successors so as to enable them to identify 
the rider on the black horse. 

He was a Roman emperor performing the functions 
of chief magistrate, who assumed absolute authority 
over the property and social well-being of his people, 
but who was he in connection with the kingdom of 
God? 

He belonged to civil life ; he represented men in 
authority in the religious life. He must stand for lead- 
ers of the societies composing the Christian church. 
But Polycarp was not acquainted with any Christian 
leaders like them. None existed. With here and 
there an exception, the leaders of every class, deacons, 
elders, evangelists, and the aged John, the last re- 
maining apostle, were self-sacrificing for the good of 
the people. 

They placed no burdens on them. They deprived 
them of no means of happiness and prosperity. They 
lived and died for them. The toison must be pre- 
dictive. 

What a gloomy picture it presented of the future 
of the kingdom in which they were so deeply inter- 
terested! The leaders, their near successors, perhaps. 



54 



PATMOS. 



were to be wolves that would devour the flock. To 
promote their own private interests they would de- 
prive Christians of all that was essential to their re- 
ligious development, usefulness and happiness in an 
organized capacity, a ballot in the election of their 
leaders, a voice in legislation, judicial judgment, and 
deprivation of the great source of faith and practice, 
leaving them in a state of hunger and want ; a flock 
preserved only for the food and clothing they might 
supply their heartless and greedy shepherds. But 
a bright spot was yet left in the dark picture — the 
wine and oil were undisturbed ; the luxuries of a 
Christian spirit were untouched ; the love of God 
shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Spirit in them, 
with its attendants, faith and hope, and all the pre- 
cious fruits of the Spirit, were left. No human au- 
thority could blot out that bright feature in their 
lives. That was the bright and morning star in the 
firmament of the kingdom of God, future to Poly- 
carp and the other ministers of the churches. We 
have the history and can follow the toison into it and 
find its exact counterpart. Wherever the leaders of 
the second seal had established their authority, their 
successors, in order to confirm their positions, found 
it necessary to reduce the people to absolute de- 
pendence on them for all ecclesiastical and spiritual 
privileges not only, but eternal life itself. This spirit 
in time changed the entire nature of the church or- 
ganization. At first it was a simple association of 
believers, with an officer to look after the wants of the 
needy — made so by the enmity of their relatives and 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAA^EN. 55 

hostile legislation, because they followed Christ — an- 
other officer to preserve order and right among them, 
and a preacher, sometimes stationary, at other times 
itinerating, to give them the bread of life. 

Each society was organically independent of every 
other society, and only associated for mutual and gen- 
eral welfare. Besides this, the Apostles exercised a 
general supervision over them, traveling from place to 
place to promote their spiritual welfare, and increase 
their numbers by new organizations. Their evangelical 
w^ork was continued by survivors, who had been asso- 
ciated with them as helpers, during their active ministry. 
In time men came to claim the position of ruler by 
divine right, and ape, in their administrations, the civil 
policy under which they existed socially. Every civil 
ruler, from the Emperor down to the Letrarch was a 
despot. So some leaders in the Christian churches im- 
bibed the same spirit the moment they were promoted 
to office. 

But ambition, like all other passions, developed its 
grasping tendencies, and not content with a single so- 
ciety of Christians to rule, coveted more extended do- 
minion, and coveting in that simple age was but another 
name for acquiring. Hence societies were grouped 
together under one leader, until the outward organiza- 
tion of the kingdom of God was made up of dioceses 
with bishops for leaders. At this era consolidation of 
diocesan power was the order of the day ; and like the 
Roman magistrate who exhausted the pecuniary re- 
sources of the people, and in return gave them a strong 
government, the leaders usurped the ecclesiastical 



56 



PATMOS. 



rights of the people to rule by their representatives 
and gave them in return ecclesiastical despotism. But 
as yet the spiritual regime of the kingdom of God was 
intact ; like the wine and the oil which was untouched 
by the imperial levying power. The revelation under 
the third seal embraces a period in the history of the 
kingdom of God extending from about the middle of 
the second century to the era of the consolidation of 
the papal powers. If Polycarp had written out a his- 
torical interpretation of this seal it would have been : 
**The time will come when men from ambitious mo- 
tives will aspire to the eldership of the Christian eccle- 
sia. They will secure their election by the people by 
shrewd management. Proceeding by their plausible 
suggestions and fallacious reasonings, two or more so- 
cieties will be induced to consolidate under a single 
elder, who will always be the man that has prevailed 
upon them to inaugurate the change. For convenience, 
the larger cities will be chosen as the centers of ad- 
ministration. 

The city will embrace in its ecclesiastical juris- 
diction the smaller towns and rural districts. This will 
make a diocese. Capitals of provinces will naturally 
include all the ecclesia of the provinces under one ju- 
risdiction. This will constitute a patriarchate ; and when 
the bishop of Rome, because he is bishop of the cap- 
ital of the world, claims to be universal bishop, it will 
be accorded him; and by this time the people will have 
been deprived of the right of electing their leaders and 
will become the ecclesiastical vassals of their universal 
bishop. But thanks to the great Head of the church, 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 57 



that which constitutes the real kingdom of God, the 
spiritual endowment will remain without infringement 
pure and simple. 

PARAGRAPH 4. 

John has seen passing a most distingu ished military 
hero, who coming from many a field of battle ; bearing 
an escutcheon unsullied by a single defeat ; receives the 
unanimous plaudits of his nation, and the admiration of 
all others, returns in his glory to wage new wars and 
win new fields. He has also seen another military 
character of less distinction, receiving no especial 
honors from any source, a miserable partisan, creating, 
to further his selfish designs, civil war in the very nation 
consolidated and exalted to greatness by his predeces- 
sor, arraying families against families, communities 
against communities, who slaughter each other by 
thousands and when the bloodthirsty monster has van- 
quished his foes, power is conferred upon him to exe- 
cute publicly or privately every man and woman that 
may even shadow his path to universal despotism. 

He has seen also a civil ruler swaying imperial 
power, reducing to vassalage his own subjects, appro- 
priating unscrupulously their possessions to the pur- 
poses of government, the defense of the nation, and the 
protection of the people, excepting their articles of 
luxury, which would not subserve his ends, and which 
consequently he did not covet. 

Now he sees coming at the command of the fourth 
superior intelligence a nondescript, a horse of a greenish 



58 



PATMOS. 



sallow hue, unlike any equinine species in existence, a 
monster animal in appearance foreboding anything 
but good. His rider is a ruthless savage, devoid of 
pity, mercy or justice. He clears his road to sover- 
eignty by indiscriminate slaughter of friend and foe. 
He is characteristically named Death. " The yawning 
gulf of Hades opens in his wake to receive his victims. 
When he has reached the zenith of his bloody tri- 
umphs, his political creatures, called a government, con- 
fer upon him the power of life and death over one- 
fourth of the empire, and leave the mode of execution 
to his option. He may kill with the sword, with hun- 
ger, with death and with the wild beasts of the earth. 
Upon reading the description under the fourth seal 
Polycarp must have exclaimed, Is it possible that 
characters analogous to this ferocious rider of the pale 
horse shall ever appear as leaders in the Kingdom of 
God and inaugurate a state of things analogous to that 
here predicted. Here is a veritable Nero or Caligula 
in Roman history of recent date. Even the aged John 
and many members of the seven churches have been at 
their instigation and order exiled; killed with the 
sword ; starved in dungeons ; massacred in open day ; 
and thrown to wild beasts. How unlikely that heart- 
less men shall ever be promoted over the Christian soci- 
eties and make havoc of the flock of God analogous 
to this. But the toison belongs to civil life and must 
be traced to its counterpart in the Kingdom of God. 

Agent to agent, acts to acts, scenes to scenes, govern- 
ment to government, and characteristic to characteristic. 
Death was the name of the monster^ on the pale horse. 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 59 



It answered to his character as a ruler of the Roman em- 
pire. Nothing was cheaper in his estimation than hu- 
man hfe; analogous to his shall be the characters of some 
future leaders of the Christian Churches. They will re- 
gard as little worth the relation of church membership 
and will claim and exercise the power of excommunica- 
tion at pleasure. As the adherents of Death give him 
power over one-fourth part of the earth to kill as he willed, 
so authority shall be given to his counterpart religious 
rulers over a definite proportion of their members to 
destroy them as a Christian people. The victims of 
Death were legally executed by the sword. The vic- 
tims of the ecclesiastical despots shall be excommuni- 
cated from the church by formal decretals of councils. 
Other victims of Death were killed by starvation. So 
obnoxious church members shall be deprived of the 
bread of life which shall result in spiritual death. 
Other victims of Death were assassinated — so offend- 
ing Christians shall be anathematized by the ecclesiasti- 
cal authorities and all subordinate officials shall be 
enjoined to refuse them the sacraments, a sitting in 
the house of God, association with Christian people, 
and to discountenance them under all circumstances 
and at all times. To gratify a ferocious heart the vic- 
tims of Death were thrown to wild beasts, by which 
they were torn in pieces and devoured in the monster's 
presence. So heretics and schismatics, or they who 
dissent from the policy and teaching of the Christian 
leaders shall be remanded to the civil powers, as 
criminals of society and receive punishment as fixed 
by law. 



60 



PATMOS. 



The sphere of wild beasts is the animal kingdom. It 
represents the sphere of civil government, — and wild 
beasts answer to civil rulers, and the earth to a nation. 

The ministers of the churches could thus trace the 
analogies of the toison, and determine its corresponding 
counterpart in the kingdom of God, and furnish an in- 
telligible prediction of the future. But we take this 
counterpart into history and determine the reality. 
Was there ever such a state of things as here described 
in connection with the kingdom of God? Prior to the 
era of Constantine the Great the ecclesiastical powers, 
the bishops and their congeners in councils, had the 
authority only to deprive offending members, of their 
communions of the rights and privileges of the church, 
and to excommunicate and anathematize them. They 
could not punish them as criminals — they could not 
execute them as malefactors. But the pages of church 
history are crowded with instances of despotic malice 
and cruelty inflicted upon sincere and devout followers 
of Jesus because they did not bow in blind submission 
to the usurpations and dogmatic dicta of their ecclesi- 
astical rulers, for more than a hundred years before 
the union of church and state under Constantine the 
Great. From that era onward, as the church and state 
were one system of government, dissent from ecclesi- 
asticism was opposition to the civil regime, and it came 
to be regarded as a crime and was punished as such. 

Constantine forced, by the pains and penalties of 
law, the Arians to acquiesce in the creed of the Atha- 
anasians, and his example became a precedent in his 
empire to all bishops to arraign offenders against the 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 61 

fundamental law of church and state, although the of- 
fense was only in itself amenable to an ecclesiastical 
tribunal, before the civil tribunals, for punishment. 
The prediction under this seal embraces the entire 
period of persecution of dissenters by the ecclesiastico- 
civil powers from the era of Constantine the Great to 
the year 1789, the era of Napoleon Bonaparte. Dur- 
ing all this period the kingdom of heaven was so 
locked up in the existing human hierarchy that every 
member that attempted to escape was pursued with the 
sword, hunger, death and wild beasts to extinction. 

We have only to rea4 the history of the church of 
Jesus Christ — falsely so called — to become fully ac- 
quainted with the details of this prediction, and to be 
impressed also with the truth that the kingdom of 
heaven is one thing and church and state is quite an- 
other. The latter is entirely human, the former divine. 



DELTA. 



PARAGRAPH i. 

HE contents of the fifth seal were more readily 
recognized by Polycarp and his coadjutors than 
those of the former seals. The scene was laid in 
the vision-heaven where John stood to watch the pro- 
gress of events. In the temple similar to that of Sol- 
omon's, were the altars of sacrifice and incense, besides 
the golden candle-sticks. At the base of the altar of 
sacrifice John saw the souls, or the substantial forms, 
of men and women and children who had been deprived, 
through great suffering, of their material organisms, or 
in other words, their physical existence. He heard 
their imprecations for divine retribution on the human 
powers that had immolated them on account of their 
adherence to the word of God, and the testimony they 
had given for his truth. How long, O Lord ! holy and 
true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them 
that dwell on the earth? " To pacify them white robes, 
in place of the physical organism, were given them, 
and they were told to wait a little season until more of 
their brethren and fellow servants should be killed as 
they had been and join them. This toison had a ready 
solution by the angels of the seven churches. 

(62) 




THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 63 



If the golden candle-sticks represented the seven 
churches, the temple itself must stand for the Kingdom 
of Heaven as inaugurated by Christ among men. The 
altar of sacrifice stood for the cross of Christ and the 
altar of incense for the mercy seat established by him. 
The souls under the altar, that is around its base, rep- 
resented the long list of martyrs who had from the be- 
ginning, when James was killed with the sword, down to 
the time that Antipas, of the church of Pergamos, was 
slain at the foot of the cross of Christ, become the vic- 
tims of pagan and Jewish hatred under the Roman 
government. The analogy between the substantial forms 
under the altar and Christians in the flesh who had 
suffered for the cross, the emblems of Christ's religion, 
was, at a glance, apparent. The cry of the former for 
avengement finds its counterpart in the ardent prayers 
of the living, but prospective martyrs, for divine pro- 
tection in their work, and the overthrow of the powers 
of darkness with which they wrestled. These prayers 
were to be answered in due time. The white robes 
were emblematical, everywhere in the Scriptures, of the 
divine righteousness with its accompanying cloud of 
glory in which all such characters are arrayed in the 
perfect state. 

The righteousness belonged to the living saints and 
was their earnest of the glory of God. What was told 
the souls under the altar was also, to Polycarp, pre- 
dictive. The persecution would not cease in his day. 
It would continue as long as the Roman pagan govern- 
ment existed. Two centuries and a quarter longer 
would the souls from the Roman Empire flock to the 



64 



PATMOS. 



altar in the temple, then the avengement would come. 
But the avengement at this era would not be complete, 
for the gathering of souls at the altar would continue 
down the ages beyond until the arm of persecution 
should be completely paralyzed, and there be no weapon 
to shed martyr blood. 

The sixth seal gives the answer to the prayers of the 
saints and discloses the first avengement. John hears 
the terrible detonations of an earthquake. His atten- 
tion is turned away from the scenes in the temple to 
the vision — earth, and its covering heavens. Fire, 
vapor, smoke, dust, flying debris, from the wrecked 
earth, on the wings of the electrical forces, fill the 
firmament, blacken the face of the sun and redden the 
moon, like blood. The convulsion shakes the stars out 
of their places in the heavens and they fall to the 
earth, and the very heavens are removed from sight, 
and the mountains and islands are ejected from their 
original seats and foundations. The terrific and de- 
structive scene fills all classes and conditions of men 
with dismay and horror. Their wicked career has 
come to a sudden close, and conscience declares the 
day of judgment at hand. The avenging God is de- 
scending and they hide themselves in the dens and in 
the rocks of the mountains and call for the mountains 
and rocks to fall on them and hide them from the 
presence of the avenger. How intense must have 
been the excitement of the seven churches when this 
vision was read to them by their ministers ! They dis- 
tinctly saw the end of persecution and the dismal fate 
of the persecutor. The seven churches were in the 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 65 



Kingdom of Heaven, just as the golden candlesticks 
were in the temple. The Kingdom of Heaven was 
located in the Roman nation. This was the earth 
that John saw with its vaulted skies. By analogy the 
sun was the supreme power of the nation ; the moon 
his subordinate principalities ; the stars inferior officers 
of the empire ; the heavens themselves the supreme 
organized government ; the mountains the institutions 
of the country on the land ; the islands were the insti- 
tutions created on its seas and rivers. 

Now the probelm for solution was"*: What would be 
to the Roman nation, what an earthquake was to 
the earth? What suspends the functions of the su- 
preme executive power and renders its administration 
abortive, just as the suffusion of the atmosphere with 
vapor, smoke, and debris of an earthquake blots out 
the light of the sun? 

The earthquake originates in the earth — and is not 
a force external to it. It belongs to the sphere of the 
physical world. It looks for its counterpart in the 
sphere of civil life. Certain causes in the nation pro- 
duce a civil convulsion analogous to an earthquake, 
annul the supreme powers, suspend all subordinate of- 
fices ; overturn the government ; and wreck the legally 
constituted order of things in the nation, and bring the 
reigning dynasty to an end. A civil war produces ex- 
actly these effects. The victorious party abolish the old 
constitution and inaugurate a new. The national re- 
gime is totally changed. 

The institutions of the people both on land and sea 
are abolished ; and others created on a new basis. 

5 



66 



PATMOS, 



The country and the people only remain the same. 
During the progress of these civil convulsions, men 
whose subsistence depends on the continuance of the 
established order of things are crazed with apprehen- 
sions of poverty, imprisonment or death, and in every 
possible way endeavor to avoid the pending doom. 

Toisons of civil life analogy traces to counterparts in 
the religious ecclesiastical life. Hence, says the angel 
of the church to the people, these kings of the earth, 
the great men, rich men, chief captains, mighty men, 
are the different grades of officials in the religious 
sphere; and the bondmen and the freemen are their 
adherents. Conscious of the outrages they have insti- 
gated against the innocent followers of Jesus Christ, 
and seeing the utter wreck of the institutions under 
their management, and the destruction of every thing 
of value to them individually, as well as officially, they 
see before them nothing but impending ruin. They 
disguise their identity and conceal themselves among 
the masses of the people. 

"But," say the ministers, ''these men are not leaders 
in the Christian churches. They are part and parcel of 
the national organization and managers of its religious 
institutions.'' They are the priests of paganism. Pa- 
ganism and the Roman government are one. They 
have always existed as a unique system. What affects 
one affects the other. The kingdom of heaven has 
been encroaching upon the religious department of the 
Roman empire from the day of the Pentecost to the 
present time. Whence the seven churches of Asia ? 
They are composed of converted pagans. So of the 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 67 

thousands of Christian societies among the gentiles in 
all parts of the world. Is it anything strange that the 
priests of paganism should be alarmed at the spread of 
this religion ? How long will it be before the whole 
Roman world will embrace Christianity and the estab- 
lished religion be annihilated ? 

At their instigation laws have been passed by the 
Roman government, making the Christian a criminal 
against the state. Hence the persecutions. Now the 
retribution has come. The persecuting power is 
broken — and annihilated. The imprecations of the 
souls under the altar are in part answered. The king- 
dom of heaven is to triumph at last. 

We, at this distance in time from this day of jubilee 
in the seven churches, in anticipation of the imminent 
triumph, can traverse actual history and verify these 
anticipations. Persecution of the Christians by the 
power of the Roman government continued from the 
reign of Nero to that of Constantine the Great ; and 
the souls of the martyrs were gathered under the altar 
in the temple in the vision-heaven. While prefect of 
Gaul, Constantine examined the nature of the Christian 
religion, and was convinced of its harmlessness and 
utility, and protected its adherents against the malice 
of the pagans. Upon the death of his father, Con- 
stantine, the son, was appointed his successor in the 
western part of the empire, at York. 

Raising an army to oust a pretender at Rome, he 
found his army composed and officered by Christians. 
He chose the cross as his imperial standard, and 
marched in triumph to Rome. Being established in 



68 



PATMOS. 



supreme authority, he issued an edict, exempting Chris- 
tians from all former ^disabilities, and giving them equal 
privileges in the state with pagans. At about the same 
time civil war broke out in the East between Max- 
imian and Licinius ; — and then again soon after be- 
tween Licinius and Constantine. In the meantime the 
latter had espoused, nominally, the Christian religion, 
while the former was a pagan. The leaders of the re- 
spective religions regarded the struggle as one for the 
domination of either paganism or Christianity. Con- 
stantine was victorious, and the pagan party was com- 
pletely vanquished. Upon his accession to the impe- 
rial purple throughout the whole empire, Constantine 
reorganized the state, abolishing paganism, its religious 
department, and adopting Christianity in its stead. This 
necessitated a radical change in the constitution of the 
Roman empire, and the abolition of old institutions 
and the inauguration of new. This was the earthquake 
that John witnessed ; — a civil war, eventuating in the 
destruction of the old government ; change of the su- 
preme ruler ; removal of subordinates ; the discontin- 
uance of all pagan institutions, and the utter ruin of 
the pagan priesthood. The revolution was radical and 
complete. Thus the persecuting power was over- 
thrown, — and its victims were avenged. 

PARAGRAPH 2. 

Now John has a bright and beautiful vision. The 
wind forces, ever ready at a given signal to rush forth 
and devastate the land and sea, are held in abeyance 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 69 



by four angels. There was a perfect calm on both 
sea and land. Another angel ascending from the 
earth, having the dial of the living God, commanded 
the four angels not to harm the earth and sea, and trees 
until the servants of God were sealed in their fore- 
heads. John hears the number sealed a hundred and 
forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of 
Israel. He hears the name of each tribe announced 
and the number sealed of each. Besides these he saw 
a multitude beyond computation, of all nations and 
kindreds and people and tongues, stand before the 
throne in the vision-heaven, and in the presence of the 
Lamb, clothed in white robes and palms in their hands, 
shouting salvation to God and the Lamb. The angels 
and elders and superior intelligences took up the re- 
frain full of ascriptions of excellence unto God. Then 
a thrilling episode occurs which dispels the mystery in 
John's mind hanging around the marvelous multitude. 
From the toisonic they are brought into literal light ; 
and the truth flashes at once an John's perception that 
these are the fruits which have been gathered by the 
Kingdom of Heaven from the world of trial into the 
world of glory during ages of persecution. What 
are these which are arrayed in white robes ? and whence 
came they ? " John confesses his ignorance ; and the 
elder answers his own question. *^ These are they which 
have come up out of great tribulation, and have 
washed their robes and made them white in the blood 
of the Lamb.*' Hence their destiny he describes as the 
grandest of any creatures. 

They are before the throne ; the Great Supreme 



70 



PATMOS. 



dwells among them ; no more hunger nor thirst ; no 
heat nor sunlight will they suffer, or need it ; the Lamb 
shall be their everlasting guide, and supply all their 
wants; and God shall wipe away all tears from their 
eyes. 

We may imagine the immense throngs congregated 
in the seven churches to hear the exposition of this 
wonderful vision. They have learned already that the 
earth is the toison for the Roman nation in an organ- 
ized capacity. The earthquake shook the earth to its 
center and wrecked the objects on its surface. This 
answers to the civil war that caused the upheaval of 
the Roman nation, and made it a desolate scene. If 
the earth is the organized nation, the sea must be the 
masses of the people in an unorganized state ; and the 
trees on the earth are toisons for whatever properly 
belongs to the nation — as its productions — social, 
political and religious. If the earthquake is the toison 
of civil war, a natural effect of ambition, selfishness 
and bloodthirstiness, the winds are toisons of social, 
political and religious causes of civil commotions in 
the nation and among the people. These causes were 
held by the intelligent agents, to whose department 
they belonged, in a quiescent state, and consequently 
there was national peace and harmony. During this 
period the Kingdom of Heaven made rapid progress in 
the conversion of men. The toisons given to re- 
veal the state of things seem almost literal to the min- 
isters of the seven churches. They need only substitute 
the Christian churches for the tribes of Israel to under- 
stand at once their significance. The tribes all settled 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 71 

in their own allotments under Joshua present an estab- 
lished order of society, conducive to prosperity and 
rapid increase of the population. 

In proportion to the number circumcised during their 
wandering in the wilderness, the rite was performed a 
thousandfold. Analogous to this, in comparison with 
the times of persecution, the rite of purification was 
administered during this reign of peace to far greater 
numbers. Thousands of pagans flocked into the Chris- 
tian churches with their families by profession and 
baptism. They were sealed the servants of God. To 
the seven churches all this was predictive, but to us it 
is historical. From the time of the union of church 
and state in Constantine, to the era of the subversion 
of the Roman Empire in the west, Christianity had un- 
interrupted progress, and nearly the entire population 
connected themselves with the Christian societies, 
thousands of whom were genuine converts and true 
followers of Christ. This was the sealing of the serv- 
ants of God in their foreheads which John heard. 
But what great multitude is this standing before the 
throne? Whence came they? Their robes show that 
they are members of the Kingdom of heaven, but the 
palms in their hands are emblems of victory over foes 
who have fought them all during their earthly lives. 
They are not of the martyrs during the pagan perse- 
cutions ; for their souls are all under the altar, while 
these stand before the throne. They do notbelong to the 
period of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, for 
there was no civil opposition to the spread of the king- 
dom of heaven during it. They belong to a period still 



72 



PATMOS. 



future to it. They have come up out of great tribula- 
tion. They have gone through untold troubles to ac- 
complish the washing of their robes in the blood of 
Jesus. They succeeded. Therefore are they before 
the throne. How sad the reflection ! The happy and 
prosperous era of the dynasty of Constantine the Great 
is to come to an end. Troublous times are again to 
come to the Kingdom of heaven ; persecutions are to 
rise and thousands of the fellow-servants and brethren 
of the souls under the altar are to be killed as they had 
been and their souls also to be gathered under the al- 
tar ; while the masses besides who have maintained 
their integrity shall be gathered around the throne. 
There they shall hunger no more, for no tyrant shall 
deprive them of the bread of life. Nor thirst, for they 
shall have access to the fountain under the throne. 
The sun shall not light on them any more, they shall 
be out of the dominion of the wicked imperial author- 
ity ; where he can not afflict them with his cruel edicts 
nor kindle around them the fires of persecution. They 
are where their God shall dry up all their sources of 
sorrow. No wonder their shout startled all the angels. 

Salvation to our God which sitteth on the throne and 
unto the Lamb.'* No wonder the angels added the 
chorus, So let it be. Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, 
and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be 
unto our God forever and ever. So let it be.** The mul- 
titude which no man could number had triumphed over 
the principalities and powers and wicked spirits in high 
places. This prediction was plain enough to the seven 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 73 

churches; but it is our happy lot to match it with actual 
history. 

For 450 years the gospel had been confined to what 
was known as the civilized world or the territory 
embraced by the Roman Empire. About the year 400 
A. D. barbarous nations living north and east of 
the Roman Empire, began their raids upon its territory. 
The Vandals, Suevi,and Alans, were first in these incur- 
sions; sacking, plundering; killing, as they progressed ; 
at this period the Roman government was so weak as 
to be unable to defend itself and its people. The suc- 
cess of the first invaders tempted other tribes to imitate 
their example. There followed, in rapid succession, 
the Goths, Burgundians, Allemani, Franks, Huns, An- 
gli, Saxons, Heruli and the Lombards. In about seven- 
ty-five years these barbarians had subverted the Roman 
government at Rome, taken possession of the country; 
cut up and distributed its territory among themselves 
and settled among the old possessors of the land. 

This afforded the Kingdom of God a new field of la- 
bor. Here was presented to it a foreign mission en- 
terprise at home. The heathen had in divine provi- 
dence come among Christians to be evangelized. In 
the meantime from eight to twelve new governments or 
dynasties were founded, the successors of the old Ro- 
man empire. They were modeled after the old empire 
and existed as church and State. All that had been 
gained of authority by the leaders of the church socie- 
ties was retained under the new order of things ; and the 
barbarians as fast as they were converted were sub- 
jected to the old regime of the churches. Moreover, 



74 



PATMOS. 



the new kings, perceiving the superiority of the Bishops 
to themselves in all spiritual matters, were gradually 
being brought under their control even in civil matters ; 
so that it finally eventuated that the church governed 
the states composed of the ecclesiastical and civil power 
as the state had existed under Constantine. Con- 
stantine and his successors ruled both church and 
state ; while at this period the Bishops ruled the dynas- 
ties composed of church and state. In process of 
time the Bishops aspired to universal sovereignty 
primarily over the church; and secondarily over 
the civil sovereigns ; and actually succeeded in real- 
izing their aspirations. This object could not be at- 
tained through the operations of the gospel of the 
Kingdom of heaven, and consequently the people were 
led away from the truth into error which they were 
compelled to receive as truth. But during the cen- 
turies which it required to place a Bishop on the throne 
of the world as Lord of Lords and King of Kings, 
thousands and tens of thousands learned and adhered 
to the truth. They were necessarily opposed to the state 
of things which the Bishops of Rome were endeav- 
oring to inaugurate in the world. 

They attracted the attention of the New Hierarchy 
and incurred its displeasure. They were of course 
formally excommunicated from the church, anathema- 
tized, persecuted as heretics, and destroyed by the 
civil powers. Here is the multitude which John saw 
in white robes with palms in their hands. They had 
come up out of great tribulation and washed their robes 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 75 



The proof of the statement is found in the facts of 
history. Of these two or three may be cited as suffi- 
cient. Peter's confession expressed the fundamental 
doctrine of the gospel to be believed unto salvation, 
Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God.'' This 
truth had been revealed to him by the Father. When 
revealed it became a practical principle that governed 
his entire life. Peter's experience was to be that of 
every true subject of the Kingdom of heaven. A 
counteracting error began early to be taught, and 
finally ripened into a dogma held to be essential to sal- 
vation and church membership. That was : that man 
could not be saved by faith in Jesus Christ alone, but by 
the mediation of the Virgin Mary and the Saints, which 
finally regenerated into substituting the priest for 
Christ the Virgin and the Saints. No man could have 
absolution from his sins Only through the mediation of 
the priest in the first instance, and ultimately from the 
Bishops of Rome through the priest. Hence the uni- 
versal Bishop took the place of Christ in the salvation 
of men. Even the sacred Scriptures had no meaning 
for a human sinner only as that meaning was given by 
the universal Bishop. The old doctrine of justifica- 
tion by faith, taught so elaborately by Paul in Romans, 
became obsolete ; baptism was the only regeneration 
recognized by the hierarchy. Dogmatic theology and 
experimental theology came into collision. For more 
than a thousand years the latter was under duress. 
Hence the true subjects of the Kingdom of heaven 
reached the throne in heaven through great tribulation. 

At this stage of the history, as detailed in vision to 



76 



PATMOS. 



John, it is disclosed that the kingdom of heaven, as in- 
augurated and promoted by Christ and his Apostles, is 
regarded as essentially distinct from the organization, 
denominated the church. The church is simply the 
earthly dress which it assumes or which is imposed on 
it The church may be composed of the majority or 
the minority of the members of the kingdom of God. 
It may be an organization with only a bare sprinkling 
of the latter in it. Unconverted men and women in 
the church were always influenced by purely human 
motives and adopted principles of action that suited 
their carnal minds. They could not be expected to 
act upon gospel principles in their conduct of the 
church. Their policy was purely a worldly one in a 
religious garb. 

The human passions dominated in their church rela- 
tions, just as they manifested themselves in merely civil 
relations. Such men, in the majority or in power and 
authority must of necessity come in conflict with per- 
sons actuated by totally different principles. It was 
always considered wise policy to suppress the latter. 

Down to the era of Constantine the members of the 
kingdom of heaven were in the majority, and regulated 
the Christian societies, with few exceptions, on gospel 
principles. 

From that era onward the unconverted gradually be- 
came the majority and having the control changed the 
regime of the church to suit their merely human views; 
and construed the gospel to correspond and sanction 
the changes. Hence it naturally came to pass that 
what was called the church of Christ became a perse- 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 77 

cuter of Christians, and availing themselves of the civil 
power enacted scenes of cruelty and savage fe- 
rocity that exceeded anything ever known under the 
government of pagan Rome. Hence the imprecations 
of the souls under the altar of the fifth seal stood 
against these Christian persecutors with the same force 
as against the pagan. Now the period of full vengeance 
had come. Their fellow-servants and brethren had been 
killed as they had been. The persecuting powders, 
both civil and ecclesiastical, were doomed to destruc- 
tion. The vengeance first falls on the civil powers, aid- 
ing and abetting, and then on the ecclesiastical, the 
principal persecutor. 



EPSILON. 



PARAGRAPH i. 




T appears from the contents of John's visions, that 



the spiritual agencies that had the management of 



the kingdom of heaven, as distinguished from the 
civil and ecclesiastical powers with which it was con- 
nected, were the elders and four beasts which we 
have ascertained to be glorified saints from our world, 
while the spiritual agencies that controlled the civil 
and ecclesiastical powers were angels properly so- 
called. Hence when the seventh seal was opened, 
seven angels that stood before God came to view, 
to whom were give seven trumpets. These trumpets 
were for the purpose of proclaiming the divine 
will, just as the book with its seals contained 
the divine will. The communication to be made by 
the trumpets was contained in the book under the sev- 
enth or last seal. Indeed the entire revelation was 
contained in the book. The communication made at 
the opening of the six seals seem short in comparison 
with those of the seventh seal. However, at the open- 
ing of the seventh seal the seven angels were ready to 
announce its contents. The reason of the event in provi- 
dence following the proclamation of the seven angels 



(78) 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 79 

is given. Another angel stood at the altar of incense 
in the temple, holding a golden censer, to whom was 
given much incense, so that when the prayers of the 
saints came up before God, they might be perfumed 
with the incense, and make them acceptable to Him. 

The fire on the altar was kindled ; the incense burned ; 
and the prayers of the saints mingled with the smoke 
and arose to the presence of God. Instantly the an- 
gel filled the censer with live coals of the altar and 
dashed them to the earth, followed by voices, and 
thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. 

The mention of the prayers of the saints opens a way 
to the solution of the meaning of these transactions in 
the vision-heaven. The saints stand for the members of 
the kingdom of heaven both in heaven and on earth. As 
intimated before this, the souls under the altar of sacri- 
fice were anxious to have their blood avenged. Now 
their imprecations, together with the prayers of the 
saints, who were their fellow-servants and brethren and 
had been killed as they had been, came up to God for 
answer. Indited by the Holy Spirit, and offered in the 
name of Jesus, they were acceptable and hence the 
angel dashed the coals of the altar to the earth. This 
indicated that causes of the divine judgments to fol- 
low were put in operation. The nation, represented by 
the earth, became intensely excited, as apprehending 
some impending calamity. There was no unity of ac- 
tion in the premises. Indeed the determination upon 
measures to avert the calamity led to active war, which 
the earthquake represents. In this state of perturba- 
tion the first trumpet sounds. John looks away to the 



80 



PATMOS. 



earth and sees lowering at a distance a dark cloud. It 
is moving towards the earth. It soon breaks and dis- 
charges its contents, hail and fire mingled with blood. 
This hurricane destroys trees and herbage in a fearful 
manner ; the country is depleted one-third of all its 
productions. Here now is a new phenomenon to be in- 
vestigated by the ministers of the seven churches. 
They know that the earth is a toison for an organized 
nation, from a former toison of an earthquake in the 
earth for a civil war in a nation. The earthquake, the 
effect of the chemical and electrical forces of nature, 
internal to the earth, stands for a civil war that wrecks 
the nation. Here is a combination of electrical forces 
external to the earth carrying devastation in its course. 
It must also be war in some of its phases, and war on a 
nation guilty of persecuting the subjects of the kingdom 
of heaven. It is a judgment upon it. They could 
look into the future by this toison and see a nation, 
whose subjects were, some of them, also true Christians, 
suppressing, in every way in' fheir power, the latter as 
obnoxious to the good of the social state ; but for their 
cruelty visited by divine judgments in the form of an 
invasion by a foreign enemy who sack, burn, destroy, 
rob, as they march, no power of the government being 
able to resist or drive them from the territory. They 
came, they staid. They made room for themselves. It 
was a satisfaction to know that whatever nation was 
thus to be punished, the blood of the martyrs would be 
avenged. 

Similar reasoning was applied to the toisons of the 
second trumpet, with similar satisfactory results. Near 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 81 

the sea stood a volcanic mountain — like Vesuvius or 
^tna. An eruption took place, and the red hot lava 
and ashes rolled in a river of fire into the sea ; the 
water was turned to blood, destroying all living creat- 
ures in it to the distance the lava spread, burning the 
shipping. One-third of everything was annihilated. 
If the earth is the toison for an organized nation, the 
sea must be the toison of the unorganized mass of the 
people, or the people in their social capacity, engaged 
in their various industries, without regard to their na- 
tionality. The creatures in the sea would represent 
the various social institutions or associations of men 
and women, fostered by the common purse, and which 
afforded individual emoluments. The shipping is the 
emblem of commerce and trade, home and foreign. 

The volcano was more like the earthquake than a 
tornado. It was in proximity .to the sea, and could 
not but waste itself in the sea. It was some kind of 
war also ; — a war upon individuals to deprive them of 
their possessions and emoluments. This was also a 
judgment of God upon them for the part they had 
taken in betraying the disciples of Christ to the author- 
ities, in order to their destruction. They must be the 
people under the nationality, attacked by the foreign 
invaders, and the volcanic war must have been con- 
ducted by hostile powers already within the territory. 

It looks as though the foreign invaders, after they 
had settled themselves in the country, went deliber- 
ately to work to oust the owners of the soil and ap- 
propriate it to themselves, or render it useless to the 
inhabitants. History will give us the literal facts, 

6 



82 



PATMOS. 



The toison of the third trumpet was a star. John 
saw it fall from the heaven, or sky, of the vision-earth. 
It was really a meteor, as in its fall it burned like a 
lamp and fell upon the rivers and fountains of water. 
Its name was Womanhood, which indicated its nature. 
It made the waters bitter, or poisoned them so that 
many men died from using them. John describes this 
meteor as he saw it. Being a meteor it belonged to 
the region of the atmosphere, and not the heavens con- 
taining the sun, moon and stars. It came from a dis- 
tance beyond the limits of the earth. The elements of 
which it was composed were rank poison. 

Like the other toisons, this represents an organized 
body of invaders. Rivers and fountains supply the 
country with water, without which both man and beast 
and vegetation would perish. They are analogous to 
what a nation without which would cease to exist. 
That would be just principles of government. The 
elements of the star that poisoned the waters are ana- 
logous to what would render the principles of govern- 
ment obnoxious to human weal. As the men, during 
the earthquake under the sixth seal who were appre- 
hensive of the wrath of God, were toisons of ecclesias- 
tics, so the men here, who were poisoned by the 
waters, were toisons of religious persons ; or members 
of the Christian church ; — as such they died. 

They abandoned their church relations, — became 
dead to the church. From these premises we draw the 
following inferences : Some foreign people invade the 
nation that had persecuted the followers of Christ ; 
bring it under their control to such an extent as to be 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 83 

able to introduce their own principles of government 
and religion ; neutralizing those of the nation, so that 
when the members of the Christian church came under 
the new regime — which they were compelled to do to 
save their lives and property — they were, by the 
adoption of the new principles, forced to abandon their 
Christian principles and their church connections. 
The proportion of apostasies to the population was a 
calamity to the national hierarchy that well nigh 
wrecked the church, as well as the nation. These 
events were leading to the calamities of the fourth 
trumpet. 

Now a third part of the sun is smitten, and a third 
part of the moon, and a third part of the stars ; so as "a 
third part of them was darkened, and the day shown 
not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.*' No 
immediate causes of these phenomena are seen by 
John. They are effects of causes already working, — 
the counterpart of the toisons of the three trumpets. 
Just as the earthquake of the sixth seal darkened the 
sun, moon and stars, so the tornado, the volcano and 
the meteor had a similar effect upon the heavenly bod- 
ies. They darkened one-third of them. The sun, 
moon and stars are toisons, as already determined of 
official positions of a nation. These positions had been 
so effected by the revolutions inaugurated by the in- 
vading forces that the old government was reduced in ^ 
territory, resources and dominion, one-third. 

It is to be presumed that these toisons were readily 
interpreted by the ministers of the seven churches, and 
thus put in the form of predictions. These predictions 



84 



PATMOS. 



whether written out or left as oral dicta would natural- 
ly be applied by the persecuted to their persecutors, 
and the latter, stung by the significant coincidence, and 
having the power, would suppress them and for that 
reason they have been lost to the people of God. To 
find the historical reality of the communications of the 
four trumpets, we must determine upon the existence 
of a nationalit}^ after the union of the church and 
state in Constantine, that were guilty of persecuting the 
true followers of Christ. 

It looks like a contradiction to predicate such per- 
secution of the Roman nation, forward from the era of 
Constantine. It was a Christian state. Why persecute 
Christians? A fundamental fact has been overlooked 
by church historians of this period, without which as a 
factor, it can not be understood. It is that the king- 
dom of heaven as before intimated is one thing and the 
national hierarchy quite a different thing. The hier- 
archy was no divine institution ; while the kingdom of 
heaven was. 

In providence, the subjects of the latter were mem- 
bers of the former. The principles and practices of 
the latter never changed, while the former was con- 
tinually changing its form and polity. It is this fact 
that meets the conditions of the words of Jesus, I 
come not to send peace on the earth but a sword.'* 
The true foU'^wers of Christ must necessarily always 
protest against a human assumption of the prerogatives 
of the divine Being, or any perversion of gospel truth, 
or any obstructions thrown in the way of the progress 
of the kingdom of God. Upon the adoption of the 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 85 



Christian as the state religion in the place of the pagan, 
radical changes, in the organization of the Church as a 
whole, or in its parts — the individual societies ; also in 
the rites and ceremonies of worship ; and also in Chris- 
tian doctrine, were inaugurated. Quotations or refer- 
ences are not needed here to establish the truth of this 
assertion. 

The history of the Church of this period contains 
little else besides a detail of these changes. They 
were resisted by multitudes of conscientious followers 
of Christ. But in history these persons were not known 
as Christians, but schismatics, heretics, dissenters. The 
parties that made the changes were the Christians. Of 
course they were not persecuted — -but the others were. 
An eminent writer says, The right of legislating 
over the Church and dictating its faith and worship, 
was formally assumed by Constantine, and, at least 
generally if not universally assented to by the bishops 
of the age.'* They punished the violation of their de- 
crees in respect to religion like the greatest civil crimes 
by banishment, confiscation, torture and death. 

The veneration of relics; the usurpations of the 
patriarchs ; monkery and celibacy of Jhe clergy ; the 
invocation of saints and worship of images were legal- 
ized by the emperors of Rome from Constantine 
onward. Dissentients from the civil edicts were, ev- 
erywhere and for ages, informed against by the eccle- 
siastical authorities to the civil and their victims 
brutally punished. Hence we come to know in history 
the Paulicians ; the Albigenses ; the Waldenses ; the 
Wicklifites ; the Lollards, and the Bohemians, who 



86 



PATMOS. 



were driven out of the hierarchy and sent wandering 
as refugees into exile, or into the hiding recesses of 
the mountains of their own country. Whoever was 
bold enough to protest against the corruptions of the 
gospel, its doctrines and rites, as instituted by Christ 
and his apostles, were the objects of relentless perse- 
cution by the Roman government. In this practice 
this government was just as bigoted, heartless and 
cruel as pagan Rome before it. 

Pagan Rome was utterly destroyed because it perse- 
cuted the saints of God. So Christian Rome must 
share the same fate. The counterpart reality of the 
tornado that devastated the earth is thus described by 
Jerome : " It fills one with horror to trace the devasta- 
tions of the times. For twenty years and more Roman 
blood has been daily shed between Constantinople and 
the Julian Alps. The Goths, Sarmatians, Quadi, 
Alans, Huns, Vandals and Marcimoni have plundered 
and devastated Scythia, Thrace, Macedonia, Dardania, 
Dacia, Thessalonica, Achaia, Epirus, Dalmatia and 
Pannorius. How many matrons ; how many conse- 
crated virgins and persons of worth and rank, have 
been mocked by these brutes ! The bishops have been 
made prisoners; the presbyters and the clergy of 
other orders slain ; the churches demolished ; horses 
stabled at the altars of Christ, and the bones of the 
martyrs disinterred. Wailings and groans have been 
everywhere and death in all its forms. The Roman 
world is falling/* The following is the account of the 
counterpart reality of the volcano that poured its 
contents into the sea : " The Vandals, under Genseric, 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 8/ 



forced from their native seat by the Huns, passed 
through France and Spain into Africa ; conquered the 
Carthaginian territory, estabUshed an independent 
government, and thence through a long period ha- 
rassed the neighboring islands and the Mediterranean 
shores, robbing and plundering as they went, destroy- 
ing the commerce of that sea and firing the cities." 
The meteor burning like a lamp and falling upon the 
rivers and fountains finds its historical reality in the 
invasion of the Roman empire by the Scythians under 
Attila from Asia. They first encountered the Romans 
in combination with the Visigoths, Alans and Franks, 
451, and were defeated; again they advanced against 
the Alans and Visigoths, 452, and were defeated. 
Pushing on regardless of defeat, they conquered 
Aquillia and wasted the cities of Lombardy on their 
invasion of Italy, but retreated again beyond the 
Danube. After the death of Attila the youth of his 
army enlisted in large numbers in the Italian armies, 
became a scourge alike to the people and rulers and 
finally aided in the destruction of the Roman empire.** 
To escape all the evils of a savage warfare not only, 
but social and domestic misery, in their forced associa- 
tion with them, thousands of the members of the 
hierarchy adopted their modes of life ; their religion, 
customs and principles of government, such as they 
were, and became part and parcel of their community. 
They died to the religion of Christianity through the 
poison imbibed from their barbarous institutions and 
practices. 

The historical counterpart of the fourth seal is the 



88 



PATMOS. 



subversion of the Western Roman empire in the year 
of 476, by the Heruli, under Odoacer, who banished 
Augustulus and himself ascended the throne. In this 
overthrow, in proportion to the whole empire east and 
west, one-third of the sun, moon and stars were smit- 
ten, never to shine again. Thus the earth, the sea, the 
rivers and fountains, by the tornado, the volcano and 
the meteor were continually agitated, and their con- 
tents and productions destroyed so long, that even the 
sun, moon and stars felt the effect, and lost one-third 
of their light. Or, in other words, the successive in- 
vasions by the various barbarous tribes from the north 
and east of the Roman territory, for 150 years, had so 
exhausted the resources of the government that it fell 
an easy prey to a barbarian king at the time men- 
tioned. This, in part, answers the prayers of the saints 
and the imprecations of the souls under the altar. 
Their blood was avenged by these terrible calamities 
on their persecutors — but the end of judgment is not 
yet. 

John saw an angel flying through the midst of 
heaven, saying: Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of 
the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpets 
of the three angels which are to sound." 

PARAGRAPH 2. 

When the fifth trumpet was sounded, a star or me- 
teor fell from the sky upon the earth. Like the me- 
teor of the third trumpet, it did not come from the 
celestial heavens, but came as meteors usually move, in 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 89 



a horizontal direction, and struck the earth. It, like 
the former meteor, was the toison of some warlike 
power or host, come in on the territory of a nation to 
make conquests. After the meteor had struck the 
earth, a key was given it to open the bottomless pit and 
let out its contents. Smoke as from a volcano was 
first seen issuing therefrom. It actually darkened the 
atmosphere and the sun. Its dense darkness was due 
to the mass of locusts with which it was charged. These 
locusts spread themselves over the earth, and com- 
menced their work of destruction. Unlike ordinary 
locusts they did not subsist on the growing vegetation 
of the land, but upon the blood of men. They struck 
men like a scorpion stings a person. They did not 
kill but tormented them by fastening themselves to 
their bodies, and sucking their blood; nor could the 
men get rid of them. Death would have been a re- 
lief to them, but love of life and hope that the scourge 
would soon pass away kept them from destroying them- 
selves. These tormentors continued their inflictions 
five months. The explanation? but only those men 
which have the seal of God in their foreheads is the key 
to the meaning of the communication by the trumpet. 
Men belong to civil life. They are toisons of persons 
in the religious life. They were members of the ec- 
clesiastical establishment in the nation represented by 
the earth. Of these there were two classes, one who 
had the seal of God in their foreheads, and another 
who had not. The former we have already seen were 
the members of the kingdom of heaven, in contradis- 
tinction to those of the hierarchy. The latter were not 



90 



PATMOS. 



members. Hence the earth is the toison of the nation 
to which these respective ecclesiastics belong. The 
only nation answering to this description, after the de- 
struction of the Western Roman empire, was the Eastern 
Roman empire. It, after the fall of the former, existed 
a thousand years. It was also a church and state es- 
tablishment that had usurped the prerogatives of Christ; 
corrupted gospel truth ; introduced idolatrous innova- 
tions ; and was accustomed to punish all dissentients as 
criminals against the civil law. The warrior hosts rep- 
resented by the meteor made their incursions upon the 
territory of this nation. There are two classes of these 
invaders. The one a regular organized army ; the 
other an unorganized mass of men, women and children. 
The former entered the territory and opened the way. 
The latter followed. The meteor fell upon the earth ; 
and then opened the bottomless pit and let out the lo- 
custs. The bottomless pit is the emblem of the source 
of all that is detestable, vile and savage, in human na- 
ture. The creatures that come out of it belonging to 
the insect world are toisons of human beings. A swarm 
of locusts comprehends both sexes and all ages of in- 
sects ; and hence stands for men, women and children. 

The particulars of their description are representative 
of the characteristics of this motley host. The locusts 
looked like horses prepared for battle ; on their heads 
were crowns of gold ; their faces were like the faces of 
men ; and they had hair as the hair of women, and 
their teeth like the teeth of lions ; their breastplates were 
like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings as 
the sound of many chariots of horses rushing to battle. 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 91 

They had tails like scorpions, and stings were in their 
tails. They had a king over them, whose name was 
Destroyer. 

The mass of people which they represented were 
then in appearance an army, and moving as such on 
their march, like horses caparisoned for battle. 

The crowns they wore indicate that they were peers 
without officials, or appointed leaders who had author- 
ity over them. Men are toisons of religious persons as 
they belong to civil life. Having faces as men shows 
that they had the aspect of religious persons. Their 
campaign was a religious one. Women's hair denotes 
effeminacy, showing that they were not drilled sol- 
diers, inured to hardships, but people of the common 
relations of life. Lion's teeth are emblems of destruc- 
tive voracity. Such was the nature of this throng. 

They cared only to subsist as they marched over 
their progressive stages. Their iron breastplates indi- 
cate that they could not be materially harmed by per- 
sistent attacks of the national armies. The sound of 
their wings impresses us with their vast numbers. 
Their scorpion tails and stings show that their methods 
of attack were not the result of military knowledge, but 
unstudied and spontaneous, consisted of plunder, rob- 
bery and murder. They had a leader — their king — 
or chief, to whom alone they were subordinate, and his 
aim was the utter destruction of a class of people that 
belonged to the Christian church, or the established 
hierarchy, — who had not the seal of God in their fore- 
heads. With these indications we may go to history 
and match these toisons with the reality. The war was 



92 



PATMOS. 



consequent upon the prayers of the persecuted for 
avengement. 

These prayers had already been in part answered in 
the destruction of the Western Roman Empire that had 
persecuted the people of God because of their protest 
against the corruptions of Christ's religion. 

The Eastern Roman Empire had been pursuing, 
since the days of Constantine, a similar career. Mill- 
ions of innocent people had suffered at its hands depriva- 
tion, exile, and death because they would not conform 
their faith and practice to the edicts of the hierarchy. 
In church history these sufferers are known only as here- 
tics ; and this name of stigma has alienated from them 
the sympathy of the Christian world, who have allowed 
their memories to perish unhonored and unmourned.'* 
This persecuting power must be destroyed if it should 
take a thousand years. 

About the year 600 a new form of religion, an imi- 
tation of Christianity, was introduced into the world, 
by Mohammed. It claimed to be a purer religion than 
the religion named Christianity existing at that era. 
It excluded idolatry as practiced by the Christians en- 
tirely from its doctrines and practices. It claimed for 
its mission the destruction of idolatry, and the propa- 
gation of Mohammedanism. This if by no other means 
was ordained to be done by the sword. Arabia was 
brought under the sway of the new prophet, who fixed 
his capital at Mecca. His successors, the Caliphs, rapid- 
ly pushed their propagandism into Asia and Northern 
Africa, and gathered adherents by tens of thousands. 

By the fullness of time to torment the men who had 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 93 



not the seal of God in their forehead, the armies of the 
CaHphs were marched toward Western Asia and East- 
ern Europe, the territory of the Eastern Roman Empire. 
The population of Persia and India, the counterparts of 
the bottomless pit, enthused by the new religion and 
fired to a high temperature of fanatical zeal, followed 
the army of conquest in mass into the territory of the 
Roman Empire. They now commenced their maraud- 
ings and slaughter and pillage. 

They had received orders from their spiritual leader 
not to molest any of the inhabitants but the idolatrous 
Christians. They strictly obeyed. But when it was 
once determined that a person or family or community 
were Christian idolaters they spared neither age, nor 
sex, priest nor layman, but slaughtered them indiscrim- 
inately, despoiling their houses, their churches; rob- 
bing their persons, and enriching themselves with the 
plunder. What belonged to the nation as such — 
government, lands, shipping, crops, revenues, were 
passed by undisturbed. 

Thousands of the hierarchists foreseeing their impend- 
ing fate attempted to save themselv^es and families by 
abjuring Christianity and professing Mohammedanism. 
But it did not save them. Once known to have been 
idolaters they were destroyed. The churches of Baby- 
lonia, Syria, Egypt, Asia Minor, Northern Africa, 
Spain and of the Mediterranean islands, were well nigh • 
annihilated. 

They continued their career of blood for about one 
hundred and fifty years, the counterpart of the five 
months during which the locust tormented the unsealed 



94 



PATMOS. 



men when, in the battle of Poictas they were stopped 
in their progress, totally defeated and the tide of de- 
struction rolled back to its ocean bed. One woe is 
past. Two more are to come. 

PARAGRAPH 3. 

At the sounding of the sixth trumpet John's atten- 
tion was attracted by a voice in the vision-heaven com- 
ing from the four horns of the golden altar which was 
before God, saying to the sounding angel : " Loose 
the four angels which are bound in the great river 
Euphrates. And they were loosed and were prepared 
for an hour, a day, a month, and a year to destroy the 
third part of men. 

The golden altar was the altar on which was offered 
much incense with the prayers of the saints. The 
smoke was still ascending, and God, moved by the per- 
severing prayers, orders a new series of judgments upon 
the persecutors of his saints. The loosing the four 
angels was equivalent to allowing the spiritual agents, 
having control of the destructive powers, to rouse them 
to their mission to destroy a third part of men. When 
the order was given an army of 200,000,000 horsemen, 
or rather horses and their riders, came to view. Each 
angel set in motion an army one after another, each to 
continue its invasions and conquests, a proportionate 
length of time, as one hour, to a day, to a month, to a 
year. Altogether their number was almost innumera- 
ble. 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 95 

The mention of the river Euphrates furnishes the key 
to the communication of the sixth trumpet. 

The Euphrates and its tributaries watered the country 
from which was gathered the army of Cyrus for the 
sack of Babylon, and the conquest of the Babylonian 
empire. It is the toison of the source of the hosts 
that were to be brought to the destruction of the per- 
secutors of the people of God. 

The natural enemies of the hierarchies are the coun- 
terparts of these vast armies of horses and men. The 
only natural enemies which they had, after the check 
given to the progress of the Saracens, outside the 
Roman empire, were Mohammedans, dwelling in Asia. 
There were two classes of these hosts ; one the horses ; 
the other the men that rode them. As horses belonged 
to the animal kingdom, analogy requires their counter- 
part to belong to the next higher sphere, the civil 
department of life. Men, as we have more than once 
seen, are toisons of religious persons. Here, then, we 
have an army made up of the soldiery of the country 
under regularly constituted leaders; and religious fa- 
natics who instigate the soldiery to their work of slaugh- 
ter. Men ride and guide the horses. So fanatics drive 
on the regular army to its appointed work. As the 
men were protected by breast-plates of fire, jacinth, 
and brimstone, so the fanatics trusted for security in 
their religion, a religion composed of the most destruc- 
tive sentiments, as fire is to wood. The most blood- 
thirsty desires ; as the jacinth is the emblem of blood ; 
and the most offensive principles as the brimstone, has 
the most offensive odor, when heated, of any mineral. 



96 



PATMOS. 



The horses were the agents of destruction. Their 
heads were like the heads of lions. Their ratiocina- 
tion, for which head stands, was charged with elements 
of savage ferocity, whose motive for slaughter is to glut 
the passions. Out of their mouths issued fire, smoke, 
and brimstone ; with these was a third part of men 
killed. These are toisons of social and religious senti- 
ments, pregnant with destruction of all organized relig- 
ion and society ; the darkness of superstition, and 
offensive to all sense of purity of life and social virtue. 
These sentiments were forced upon the acceptance of 
the men, with savage ferocity and ruthless tortures. 
The horses also had a deadly power in their tails which 
were like serpents with heads, and they stuck their 
poisonous fangs into the men and killed them in that 
manner. 

To kill the men is analogous to breaking up the 
connection with the Church or hierarchy of its mem- 
bers. 

As head stands for the mental faculties, so tail is the 
toison of the low passions and desires of the animal 
nature. The passions and desires of the soldiery were 
brutal, vile, and deleterious to an upright and virtuous 
life. They reduced their victims to the lowest grade of 
morality after they had driven them from Church re- 
lationship. The two-thirds of the men that were not 
killed did not profit by the experience of the one-third. 
They continued to worship devils, and idols of gold, 
and silver, and brass and stone and wood ! Nor did 
they repent of their murders nor their sorceries, nor 
fornications, nor their thefts. In literal description the 



THE HISTOKY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 97 



members of the hierarchy that survived the terrible or- 
deal described did not recognize these calamities as a 
judgment of God upon them for the corruption and 
perversion of the gospel, and its institutions, but con- 
tinued their idolatrous practices and persecutions of 
holy men ; seducing the ignorant into their errors ; mix- 
ing religious and profane together in their practices ; 
and robbing innocent people of their characters, rights 
and privileges. 

After the Saracens were checked in their triumphant 
march westward by Charles Martel, in a series of vic- 
tories on the plains of Poiters, about the middle of the 
eighth century, no extensive invasion of the Roman 
empire occurred until about the middle of the eleventh 
century. In the meantime Mohammedanism had spread 
eastward and was embraced by the principle nations 
and peoples of Asia. Most of the tribes of the war- 
like Tartar race embraced this religion. Naturally rest- 
less and thirsting for conquest, their prophets, the spirit- 
ual successors of Mohammed, preached to them the 
duty of propagating their own religion, and destroying 
idolatry; and had little difficulty in arousing their en- 
thusiasm for such a mission. They lacked the theatre 
of operations ; for all the nations around them were of 
the same faith and practice. 

For a long period their young warriors had been 
employed by the Saracens to widen the field of their 
conquests. The information that Eastern Europe was 
almost wholly given to idolatry, as they regarded Chris- 
tianity, and that they were not disturbed in their faith 

7 



98 



PATMOS. 



and practice by their co-religionists, the Saracens, — 
and that because the latter had not the military power 
to cope with them, — was communicated to them by 
the men who returned home from time to time from 
the Saracenic wars. 

Here, then, was an inviting field for conquests and 
propagandism. It was not difficult to remove their 
scruples to break faith with the Saracens, march 
through their territory and invade the Eastern Roman 
empire. They did so. Togul Beg led the first army 
of invasion, named Selju-Kians." Conquering Persia 
and Media, he had himself proclaimed " temporal vice- 
gerent over the Moslem world.*' Then he overran the 
frontier of the Roman territory, leaving in his march 
devastation and blood. His successor revived and 
continued the invasion, conquering Armenia, Georgia, 
Cappadocia and Phrygia, and sent marauding parties 
over the whole of lesser Asia. After various fortunes, 
his descendants established kingdoms, which they 
maintained through many generations. The Christians 
bought their freedom to exercise their religion only by 
tribute and servitude ; but with this privilege they were 
the objects of contempt to their victors ; and bishops 
and priests were subjected to abuse and outrage. 
Thousands were compelled to allow their children to 
be circumcised, and multitudes were reduced to 
slavery. The second general invasion was inaugurated 
by the Moguls. One horde devastated Syria, Iconium, 
Armenia, Anatolia — extinguishing the Selju-Kian dy- 
nasty after it had existed for nearly a century and a 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 99 



quarter. Another horde overran and subdued Thrace, 
Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, Hungary and Austria — car- 
rying ruin to their churches and cities, and slaughter- 
ing myriads of Christians. The third invasion was car- 
ried on by the Ottomans, who eventually took Con- 
stantinople and established a kingdom that continues 
to the present time. 

The Moguls, under Tamerlane, initiated the fourth 
invasion, which was characterized by the same regime 
as its predecessors. All these Tartar hordes were 
Mohammedans. They were composed of two classes — 
the brutal soldiery and religious fanatics, who were at- 
tendants upon the army. The presence of their 
prophets always holding out the highest hopes to the 
faithful, in a paradise created to suit their tastes and 
desires, incited them to perseverance and endurance 
of suffering and death in the cause of the great prophet 
Mohammed. Hence they went to the slaughter of the 
idolaters — the Christians — as though going to a ban- 
quet. 

By the weight of numbers and persistent onslaught 
the Eastern Roman Empire melted away, and Islamism 
installed itself in the place of Christianity in a large 
area of its territory. 

The persecuted subjects of the kingdom of heaven 
were thus avenged, but the hierarchists did not reform 
and turn back to the simplicity of the Christian religion 
as introduced into the world by its founder. The per- 
secuting civil powers were destroyed, but the ecclesias- 
tical department survived, and soon formed new civil 



100 



PATMOS. 



alliances and perpetuated the same old reign. Two 
woes are past. Another cometh. 

The visions of John have taken us to the 15 th cen- 
tury A. D. in history. Between the era of Tamerlane 
and the third woe a series of events intimately con- 
nected with the third woe is brought to John's atten- 
tion. 



ZETA. 



PARAGRAPH i. 

An angel comes down from the vision-heaven clothed 
in a cloud, the emblem of divinity ; — a rainbow — the 
emblem of peace and promise — was upon his head, 
and his face was as it were the sun, — resplendent with 
celestial glory — and his feet as pillars of fire. Alto- 
gether he was like him whom John saw in the midst of 
the seven golden candle-sticks. He did not belong to 
the class of elders or of the four beasts. He was no 
ordinary angel, like those having charge of the civil 
and ecclesiastical powers intimately connected with 
the kingdom of heaven, nor those who controlled the 
invading hosts, sent against the persecuting powers. 

His mission was far more transcendent than theirs in 
importance and consequences to the kingdom of 
heaven. 

He had in his hand a little book, — the emblem of 
information : — it was open — the information was not 
new; — the angel set his right foot upon the earth. 
As we have already determined, the sea is the toison for 
the people of a nation in their social and domestic capac- 
ity, and not as an organization ; while the earth repre- 
sents an organized nation. This angel therefore had 

(lOl) 



102 



PATMOS. 



charge of the people and nation that comprehended the 
subjects of the Kingdom of heaven. He spake; what- 
ever it was the answer came in seven thunders. This 
answer John was forbidden to write. We can only in- 
fer that it was portentous of coming events which it 
was not expedient to make known. But the angel im- 
mediately lifted his hand up towards heaven, to the 
throne of God, and swore by them who created 
heaven ; — the heaven of the vision — earth which we 
have seen in the sixth seal is the toison of supreme 
civil government comprehending the offices of the 
same ; and the earth — the organized nation — and the 
sea — the unorganized mass of the people — that there 
should be time no longer. On the face of it this ut- 
terance of the angel as it stands here, is not what he 
said, as he adds : But in the days of the voice of the 
seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mys- 
tery of God should be finished as he hath declared to 
his servants, the prophets. It is plain that the angel by 
his oath corrects a wrong impression gained somehow 
by the listeners as to the time of finishing the mystery 
of God. They seemed to think that that event was to 
take place among the events to the sixth trumpet. 
The angel says no. Not now. The time has not yet 
come ; but will come in the days of the voice of the 
seventh trumpet. The finishing of the mystery of God 
or the ending of the present phase of the kingdom of 
heaven, will not be till then. Now John is directed to 
take the little open book out of the hand of the angel. 
When he asked for it the angel directed him to eat it, 
and predicted that in his mouth it would be sweet, 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 103 



but bitter in his belly. John found his words true. 
Then said the angel to John : Thou must prophesy 
again before many peoples and nations and tongues 
and kings. These last words of the angel give 
us the clue to the meaning of this vision-scene. John, 
before he was exiled to Patmos, had prophesied or 
preached the gospel for nearly sixty years. Now he 
was to preach it again to many peoples — peoples be- 
long to social life, they represent professors of the Chris- 
tian religion — and nations ; nations belonging to the 
political department of life. They are toisons of the or- 
ganized Christian churches or religious organizations,— 
and tongues ; — that is people speaking different lan- 
guages, — they stand forprofessors of religion indifferent 
countries, and of different nationalities; — and kings," 
kings are civil rulers, they represent bishops and other 
church leaders. John, as a preacher of the gospel, be- 
longed to the entire class of true gospel preachers, and 
what is predicted of him may be predicted of them all, 
past and future. John is made to stand for future 
preachers of the gospel in character like himself. That 
is predictive of such a class to appear before the events 
of the seventh trumpet, and their preaching would be 
the antecedent cause of the third woe. The open book 
evidently represents the gospel of the kingdom of 
heaven. The future preachers would proclaim its pre- 
cious truths with great delight, but the consequences to 
their well being would be like a bitter drug in the 
bowels. They would preach the new gospel, new be- 
cause hid for ages under the rubbish of human notions, 
to people professing the Christian religion, and to 



104 



PATMOS. 



churches as such, and Christians of various nationalities 
and to popes, cardinals, bishops and priests of the 
Christian hierarchy. With such promises and predic- 
tions it is not difficult to determine the historical coun- 
terpart of the toisons. About the time that Tamerlane 
invaded the territory of the old Roman empire, — Martin 
Luther appeared in Germany preaching anew the gos- 
pel of the kingdom of heaven. He inaugurated the 
reformation in the Christian hierarchy in the 15 th cen- 
tury. The new gospel was received with avidity by 
Christian people generally. It was rejected with con- 
tempt by the leaders of the hierarchy. Its preaching 
excited opposition that eventually culminated in perse- 
cution. In the mouth it was sweet; in the belly it was 
bitter. 

It is not necessary that the facts of history of Martin 
Luther's era be referred to in detail, as nearly every li- 
brary in the world contains more than one compila- 
tion of them. The histories of the reformation are so 
many illustrations of the preaching of the new gospel 
to Christian people, Christian churches. Christians of 
various nationalities, and leaders in the great hier- 
archy flourishing at the time. 

PARAGRAPH 2. 

As the second prophetic mission of John like the 
first would inaugurate a new state of things in the earth, 
equivalent to a complete revolution in the old Jewish 
theocracy, it was requisite at this stage of the vision 
to determine the real condition of its temple, rites, 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 105 



worship, and worshipers. John was commanded to 
measure the temple of God, the altar, and the worship- 
ers. The command was equivalent to the act of do- 
ing as commanded. He found the Holy and most 
Holy places intact by the human civil powers. 

They were in charge and under the exclusive con- 
trol of the regularly constituted priesthood. 

The laws of Moses regulating the altar service were 
in full force, and the worshipers were Israelites ; but 
all else was in the hands of the gentiles, the court of 
the people, of the women, and of the nations. Their 
sacred character was gone. Besides this, Jerusalem 
was under the civil dominion of a foreign power and 
was to continue to be desecrated forty -two months. 
During the period of this desecration power was given 
unto the two witnesses of Jehovah who were to pro- 
phesy clothed in sack-cloth. 

The two witnesses are made known to John. They 
were the two olive trees and the two candlesticks stand- 
ing before the God of the earth. The explanation to 
John of the meaning of the two witnesses opens the 
vision to the understanding. * 

The reference here is to a like vision of the prophet 
Zachariah. 

There the two olive trees were the two anointed ones 
before the Lord. They were Joshua and Zerubabel; 
the one consecrated to the priesthood, the other to the 
leadership, as king. They were the recipients of di- 
vine grace which they were to communicate to the peo- 
ple of God. The candle-stick represented the people 
of God, the Jews. In John's vision the two olive 



106 PATMOS. 

trees and the two candlesticks are the two witnesses of 
God, answering to Joshua and Zerubabel the one wit- 
ness ; and to the Jewish worshipers the other witness. 
Analogy carries us from the Jewish theocracy into the 
Christian church. 

The priest and king of the former are toisons of the 
preachers of the gospel ; and the Jewish congregation 
the toison of the subjects of the kingdom of God of 
the latter. Following out the analogy, the Holy City 
stands for the entire Christian organization; the tem- 
ple is the toison of the entire department of the divine 
worship; the Holy and most Holy places are toisons 
of the special means of grace as instituted by the Lord 
to be used in his worship ; the altars represent the 
atonement; the worshipers stand for the ministers of 
the gospel ; the candle-stick for the society of the true 
followers of Christ. The other courts — added to the 
Holy and most Holy places — are the various institu- 
tions superadded to the primitive Christian ordinances. 
The gentiles are toisons of mere nominal Christians : 
and as the gentiles never entered the Holy place 
for worship, so the nominal Christians never wor- 
shiped God in spirit and in truth. They were idola- 
ters in principle and practice. The prediction is the 
following: In the progress of the history of the king- 
dom of heaven, the societies of Christians, nominal 
and real, under one organization, shall be under the 
management and control of unconverted men who 
shall make use of their opportunities to aggrandize 
themselves and party. 

The various rites, forms and ceremonies, of merely 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 107 

human origin added at various times to the simple wor- 
ship as left by Christ, shall be administered by priests 
without heart religion while the doctrines of the gospel 
founded on the atonement of Christ, the ordinances in- 
stituted by Christ, and experimental religion, the pro- 
duct of the Holy Spirit, shall be possessed only by the 
subjects of the kingdom of heaven; or in other words, 
evangelical Christians, known in church . history as 
heretics. The general church organization and the 
appended rites and ceremonies shall be under the 
management of unconverted men 1260 years. During 
all this period there shall be a continual struggle be- 
tween nominal and evangelical Christianity. The min- 
isters, representing the latter, shall preach the pure gos- 
pel under the interdiction of the church authorities and 
managers and the people that attend upon their preach- 
ing shall be the subject of their persecution, excom- 
munication, anathemas, and in some cases death by the 
civil power. These are the two witnesses that prophesy 
clothed in sackcloth; the two olive trees and two 
candlesticks, standing before the God of the earth; 
Christ's true disciples and his true ministers the only 
exponents of the great doctrines of the atonement 
which are represented by the altar in the Most Holy 
place. 

It was on their account all through the ages, that the 
judgments of God fell upon the persecuting powers 
until they were utterly destroyed. It was in part their 
prayers, mingled with incense that ascended up before 
God, which in its ascension incited the angel to dash 
the live coals of the altar with the censor to the earth. 



108 



PATMOS. 



If any man hurt them, says the angel to John, fire pro- 
ceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their en- 
emies. In the very manner they are hurt shall their 
enemies be killed. God will avenge his elect who cry 
day and night unto him. 

They have power to shut heaven that it rain not in 
the days of their prophecy, and have powers over 
waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth 
with all plagues as often as they will. Rain is essential 
to physical existence, comfort and prosperity, by 
fructifying the soil and supplying the rivers for com- 
merce. It is the emblem of social happiness. That is 
the toison of spiritual happiness growing out of the 
enjoyment of pure religion. Their testimony tends to 
unsettle all the false hopes of their oppressors incited 
by their idolatrous practices; and should it be credited 
universally by the people, the false worship would be 
abandoned for the true. Waters are emblems of phys- 
ical subsistence, health and life itself, when pure, but 
when impure, disease and death are the natural conse- 
quences. Turning the waters to blood is to make 
them too impure for healthful use. 

This is the emblem of physical disease and death ; 
and physical disease and death is the toison for social 
misery. 

So by their persistent testimony the two witnesses 
keep the social community in continual turmoil. 

It is the sword which Christ sends instead of peace 
on the earth. The man is set at variance against his 
father, the daughter against her mother; a man's foes 
are they of his own household. To smite the land 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 109 

with all plagues is to bring dearth, barrenness, insect 
pests, and every kind of evil that prevents its product- 
iveness, thereby inducing famine. Famine is the toi- 
son of spirtual deprivation which leaves people in ig- 
norance, sin and condemnation. 

This was the consequence of the testimony of the 
two witnesses. The hierarchists perceived clearly enough 
that if these people were allowed to propagate their 
phase of faith the entire fabric of the Christian organ- 
ization would in time be wrecked and sunk. Hence 
their only safe policy was to suppress them and crush 
them out of existence. In pursuance of this policy 
the gospel must be interdicted to the people. No lay- 
man must possess a copy of the word of God ; so that 
in teaching perversions could be palmed off upon them 
without exciting suspicion. 

This spiritual deprivation was carried to such a length 
that the true gospel became a sealed book, and the 
only salvation known came from priestly dicta and ab- 
solution. There was a famine of divine truth in the 
Christian world. 

At the close of the period of 1260 days, when the 
two witnesses had finished their testimony, the beast 
from the bottomless pit made war upon them, overcome 
them, and killed them. Their dead bodies laid in the 
street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom 
and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified. 

Here they were viewed by people of all kindreds, 
tongues, and nations, and were not allowed to be bur- 
ied. This was the occasion of great joy among the 
dwellers of the earth. 



110 



PATMOS. 



The only tormenters of the people had become ex- 
tinct and in the future they could enjoy their religion 
and promote it without opposition or apostasies from 
it. When the dead bodies of the witnesses had lain 
in the streets three days and a half, God restored them 
to life again, and they stood upon their feet, and great 
fear fell upon those that saw them. At the command 
of a voice from heaven they ascended thither in a 
cloud, and their enemies beheld them. At the same 
time an earthquake occurred destroying a tenth part of 
the city, slaying seven thousand men ; terrified, the 
men that remained alive were affrighted and gave glory 
to the God of heaven. 

Having determined that the two witnesses are the 
true preachers of the gospel and the people who em- 
braced and adhered to the truth, the prediction in toi- 
sons easily unfolds into the reality. The preaching of 
the pure gospel became so obnoxious to its enemies 
and preventers, and created so much interest among 
the people who heard it, and heresies multiplied to 
such an extent, threatening the upheaval of the settled 
order of things, that the hierarchists determined to 
crush it out once for all. The beast from the bottom- 
less pit by analogy finds its real counterpart in civil 
life, and is the toison of a dynasty of rulers who orig- 
inated in the very lowest order of humanity, in which 
existed every political and moral principle of the 
vilest character. This dynasty had become identi- 
fied in interest and policy with the church organiza- 
tion. It was not difficult to instigate its rulers against 
these constant disturbers of the peace of the church 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. Ill 

as well as the state. They proceeded to extremes and 
in a short period had the barbarous satisfaction of 
knowing that not a preacher of the gospel was left who 
ventured to preach; not a community of their follow- 
ers existed. The suppression was complete, and the 
rehgious world was hilarious with joy. This prediction 
carries us in history to the end of the 1260 years, from 
the time the church organization went into the hands 
of men destitute of the religion of Christ, and who 
thereafter managed it entirely in accordance with 
worldly principles. That time w^as the era of Constan- 
tine the Great. He was never a converted man and 
only joined the Christian church at the close of his life 
when about to die ; but who at the same time created 
the church and state, at the head of which he placed 
himself and thereafter became a dictator of the faith 
and practice of Christendom. Gradually he and his 
successors filled all the important bishoprics with men 
of his own views and spirit, and thereby brought all 
the minor Christian organizations under one regime ; 
a unity in doctrine and government. From the same 
era onward converted men earnestly protested on all 
occasions against this worldly scheme to conduct the 
progress of the kingdom of heaven ; and continued to 
preach the pure gospel and make converts to the true 
faith, although by necessity members of the church 
and state establishment. They prophesied clothed in 
sackcloth. Every means were tried to have them 
conform to the state of things inaugurated by Con- 
stantine, his successors and the leaders of the church, 
and bow to their fiats. When argument and decrees of 



112 



PATMOS. 



council failed, the civil power was employed to secure 
the desired conformity. Thousands upon thousands, 
during the 1260 years, of these people were excom- 
municated, anathematized and slain, as we have already 
seen elsewhere. Near the close of that period a few 
daring spirits, like John Huss, Jerome of Prague, and 
Martin Luther and others still persisted in protesting 
against the religious corruptions existing and in preach- 
ing the pure gospel. By this time the Old Roman dy- 
nasty, both in the west and east, had become extinct, 
destroyed by the judgments of God. New dynasties 
of barbarian elements had succeeded it. But these bar- 
barian elements had become christianized, and each 
adopted the Christian as the state religion like the Ro- 
man dynasty of Constantine. The same regime that 
existed under the Roman emperors was continued by the 
barbarian kings. The leading governments under these 
kings, at the expiration of the 1260 years were Ger- 
many, France, Spain and England. In Germany the 
preaching of Luther inaugurated the great reformation 
of the church ; more properly denominated hierarchy. 
The reformation spread into France and in a few years 
increased so rapidly that the Protestants had two thou- 
sand churches. In this country they were known as 
Huguenots. The Pope of Rome, now Universal Bishop, 
became alarmed for the existence of his hierarchy. 
He not only resorted to diplomacy in connection with 
the ordinary decrees of excommunication, but enlisted 
the civil powers in defense of the faith and the destruc- 
tion of the heretics. The sovereigns of France en- 
tered with alacrity into the spirit of the bloody work. 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 113 

Charles the IX. inaugurated St. Bartholomew's day for 
the massacre of the Huguenots in the year 1572, just 
1260 years from the date that Constantine, under the 
standard of the cross entered Rome as its emperor. 

On that day they that dwelt on the earth rejoiced 
(over this terrible massacre) and made merry and sent 
gifts one to another, because these two prophets tor- 
mented *'they that dwelt on the earth.'' " In Rome a 
jubilee was proclaimed by Pope Gregory XIII. to cele- 
brate what he termed : The triumph over heresy." 

It was supposed that now a death blow had been 
dealt to heresy. Five hundred thousand heretics in 
France could give no more trouble ; and the survivors 
would not have the heart to oppose the mighty power 
of the sword. The servants of God were indeed over- 
whelmed at the suddenness and fatality of the blow. 
For the time being their cause seemed lost. The blow 
was so effective that their enemies were wholly uncon- 
cerned about the fugitive survivors. They were virtu- 
ally dead to any harm they might do to the hierarchy. 
It was not necessary to anathematize protestantism, and 
cover with oblivion its memory. Like the dead bodies 
lying in the streets of the great city, slaughtered by 
the beast from the bottomless pit, the gazing stock of 
their enemies, and the occasion of jeering and rejoic- 
ing by all who passed by them, whose burial out of 
sight no one had any interest in. The two witnesses, 
Christ's true ministers and people were allowed to re- 
main in the condition where the massacre left them. 

For three days and a half their dead bodies lay in 
the streets. For three years and a half the witnesses 

8 



114 



PATMOS. 



were politically and religiously silent. Then the spirit 
of life from God entered into them and they stood 
upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them who saw 
them. This spirit of life was hope and they were 
aroused from their inactivity and were ready again for 
the grand work of preaching the gospel. A loud voice 
from heaven said to them "Come up hither/' and 
they ascended up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies 
beheld them. King Charles IX. two years after the 
massacre died succeeded by his brother, who with an- 
other brother, were childless ; and the throne of France, 
in case of their demise would fall to the king of Na- 
varre. This king at the time of the massacre was a 
close prisoner by Charles IX. One year after the 
death of Charles he escaped and joined the Huguenots 
which revived their hopes and placed them upon their 
feet again ready for Christian work. 

This event occurred three years and a half after St. 
Bartholomew's day. The two brothers of Charles IX. 
came to sudden deaths ; the one of a broken heart, and 
the other of assassination, in 1589. The king of Navarre 
was by legal right king of France. But he ascended 
the throne as a Catholic and not as a Huguenot, and yet 
was a warm friend of the Protestants. He granted an 
edict called the Edict of Nantes " in favor of the Hugue- 
nots, by which the exercise of their religion was per- 
mitted, and by which they were made admissible to all 
places of honor and dignity in the state. These events 
are the counterpart of the toison of the great voice from 
heaven saying unto them ''Come up hither" and they 
ascended up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 115 

beheld them. This heaven was the heaven of the vision- 
earth which we have already determined to be the gov- 
ernment of the organized nation to which the subjects 
of the Kingdom of Heaven belonged. The voice was 
the Edict of Nantes. Ascending to heaven was their 
admissibility to all places of honor and dignity in the 
state. The chagrin of the Catholic party is expressed 
by the toison, Their enemies beheld them.'' But 
there is an interesting episode to these events. 

At the same time was there a great earthquake, and 
the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake 
were slain of men seven thousand, and the remnant 
were affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven. 

The city is the same in the streets of which the dead 
bodies of the two witnesses lay three days and a half. 
The earthquake happened in the city. A city is a civil 
organization ; analogy finds its counterpart in a relig- 
ious organization. An earthquake in the earth is a civil 
war in the nation; in a city a revolution in the religious 
organization. Men we have determined are members 
of an ecclesiasticism. To be slain is to be alienated 
from their membership. To give glory to the God of 
heaven, is to give up their idolatrous practices and 
serve God according to His word. 

The prediction is the following : During these times 
towards the close of the 1260 years there shall be a 
revolution on a large scale in the hierarchy intent on 
suppressing the servants of Christ. It is not a religious 
reformation but a state of things like a civil war in the 
state. One part of the hierarchy shall be at variance 
with another or other parts. The result will be the 
great defection cJf the one part from the rest, the 



116 



PATMOS. 



head of the church, bishops and priests and members, 
and their subsequent excommunication for contumacy. 
When the ''bull" of excommunication shall be ful- 
minated against the branch hierarchy severing their 
connection with the main hierarchy, the members who 
had no connection with or interest in the causes that 
leads to such a result, are aroused to the real condition 
of things, and at once abandon the practices of the old 
hierarchy and enter upon the course marked out by 
the word of God, to worship God in spirit and in truth. 
With these predictive premises the reality in history 
is readily discovered. 

The gospel had also been preached in England as in 
Germany and France by Wickliffe and others, but had 
been kept in abeyance by the civil and ecclesiastical 
powers. Finally a quarrel arose between the head of 
the English church, Henry VIIL, and the head of the 
universal hierarchy, the Pope. Henry severed his 
connection as head of his church from the universal 
hierarchy, taking the church with him. The Pope 
excommunicated this monarch and all his adherents. 

The result was the Church of England as an inde- 
pendent organization. Immediately the evangelicals, 
taking advantage of their opportunities, preached the 
pure gospel throughout England and effected in due 
time the "great reformation** in the English hierarchy. 

We have in these events the earthquake in the city, 
one-tenth of it falling, seven thousand men slain, and 
the rest affrighted and giving glory to God. The 
disintegration of the great persecuting hierarchy is 
now begun. The second woe is past; the third woe 
Cometh quickly. 



ETA. 



PARAGRAPH i. 

E have seen that the contents of the six seals 
of the vision book, in the hand of the Lamb, in 
the midst of the throne in the vision-heaven, covers a 
period in the history of the Kingdom of Heaven extend- 
ing from the day of Pentecost to the dissolution of the 
Pagan Roman Empire. The six trumpets, introduced 
under the seventh seal, disclose toisons that predict 
events in connection with the Kingdom of Heaven 
embraced by the period reaching from the era of 
Constantine the Great to the end of the 1260 years, 
closing with^'St. Bartholomew's day'' and lapping over 
the next period to the edict of Nantes. The seventh 
trumpet opens a new period in the history, which we 
are told shall continue until the kingdoms of this world 
are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of its 
Christ. We read "its Christ" instead of ''his Christ" 
as making better sense and being a proper translation 
of the Greek word ''Anton." which refers to ''king- 
dom " and not " Lord." 

This passage sufficiently justifies the view that the 
Revelation is a history of the Kingdom of Heaven in 
the new Testament sense of it. 

("7) 




118 



PATMOS. 



The passage is toisonic, like the rest of the vision 
announcements, only the Son of God in the visions 
always appears in his own proper character — and not 
by any other representative person or character. 
"Kingdoms of the world** belong to the civil sphere > 
analogy requires their counterpart to be in the relig- 
ious sphere. Kingdoms of this world are toisons for 
organized ecclesiasticisms, as the church of Rome, of 
Constantinople — and others like them. The predic- 
tion is : that all the ecclesiasticisms of the world in 
which are found members of the Kingdom of Heaven, 
shall eventually be regenerated by the gospel and 
so thoroughly changed in their character as to be 
properly denominated the Kingdom of Heaven or the 
kingdom of our Lord and its Christ. We shall see that 
this is the purport of the prediction when we shall 
have seen all the civil kingdoms of the world under 
which Christ*s saints have existed, destroyed. The 
announcement of this desirable event was the occasion 
in the vision-heaven of unusual demonstrations of joy. 

Thanks are rendered because the Almighty would 
take to himself his great power and reign. 

The effect of this universal revolution and regenera- 
tion on the world is foreseen by the elders before the 
throne. The nations were angry and thy wrath is 
come, and the time of the dead that they should be 
judged, and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy 
servants the prophets and saints, and them that fear 
thy name small and great, and shouldest destroy them 
that destroy the earth.*' "Nations, ** as we have seen, 
are toisons for organized ecclesiasticisms. "Angry" 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 119 

is to be violently opposed to any radical change which 
they perceive to be imminent under the preaching of 
the gospel. *'The time to judge the dead" — is a 
toison for giving a public decision in favor of those 
who have been excommunicated from these hierarchies. 
"To reward them/' the prophets, saints, and those that 
feared the name of God, is a toison of giving preachers 
of the pure gospel and their disciples, and the true 
worshipers of God who repudiated the false worship of 
the hierarchies, of seeing their work successful at last 
and the Kingdom of God come and his will done on 
earth as it is in heaven. ''To destroy them that de- 
stroy the earth,*' is the toison for the final subversion 
of all the nations who had annihilated the old Roman 
nation as an independent people, taken possession of 
its territory and substituted themselves in its stead as 
ruling powers. These anticipations we shall see real- 
ized as we progress in the history. The antecedent 
causes of these events is also brought to view. "The 
temple of God was opened in heaven and there was 
seen in his temple the ark of his testament. '' No 
sooner was this ark disclosed than there were light- 
nings and voices and thunderings, and an earthquake, 
and great hail. The ark of the testament contained 
the law, the decalogue. Its cover was called the 
mercy seat. There God appeared personally to com- 
municate his will to the high priest. The scene is 
interpreted in his own words : "The Lord God, merci- 
ful and gracious and long suffering and abundant in 
goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression 
and sin, but by no means clearing the guilty. " All 



120 



PATMOS. 



this is typical of the gospel method of dealing with 
human sinners. 

Forgiveness for the penitent. Eternal judgment for 
the incorrigible. When the nations — the hierarchies — 
shall have this gospel preached to them, there shall be 
intense excitement among them leading to reHgious 
upheavals and changes, like those produced by an 
earthquake in the land ; and a destruction of all perish- 
able human appendages to Christ's religion, like the 
cutting of leaves, twigs, and grasses and fruit by a hail 
storm. 

So much after the sounding of the seventh trumpet 
is simply introductory to the events to follow. 

In order to understand and comprehend the toisons 
predicting the triumph of the Almighty over the 
nations, toisons leading to it are first brought to view. 
Without these toisons the grand result could not be 
rightly understood. 

The triumph is to take place during the period of 
the seventh trumpet, among its closing toisons. This 
triumph is to be over the kingdoms, hence we ought 
to know something 6f the history of these kingdoms, 
their origin, progress, and connection with the king- 
dom of heaven. 

PARAGRAPH 2. 

By common consent, by evangelical Christians, the 
woman whom John saw in heaven clothed with the sun, 
with the moon under her feet, and crowned with twelve 
stars, is held to represent the society of the true people 
of God, or true church in contradistinction to profess- 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 121 

ing Christians given to false doctrines, and human in- 
novations in Christian worship. 

Interpreted by the principles of analogy this view is 
not very wide from the fact. 

From the terms of the description the woman was 
seen not in the vision-heaven where John stood, but in 
the heaven of the vision-earth, the theater of the exist- 
ence of the Kingdom of heaven. 

This heaven had its sun, moon, and stars and 
meteoric phenomena ; while the vision-heaven had no 
sun, nor moon, nor stars, but a throne and temple, the 
Supreme, the Lamb, elders, and other attendants. In 
this position John heard her "cries of parturition. In 
the same heaven was seen a great red dragon having 
seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his 
heads. He swept the sky in his strides towards the 
woman and dragged down from the firmament one- 
third of the stars, and cast them to the earth. He took 
his position immediately before the woman, ready to 
devour her child when born. The child was a male, des- 
tined in Providence to rule all nations with a rod of iron. 
The child was caught up unto God and to his throne. 
The woman fled into the wilderness where God had 
provided a secure place for her and would sustain her 
twelve hundred and sixty days. 

We have already seen that the heaven is the supreme 
government of a nation, of which the earth is the 
toison. The sun is the dynasty of rulers, one or more. 
The moon stands for subordinate rulers under the 
supreme head, and the stars for inferior officers. A 
woman in the Scriptures is made the emblem of an or- 



122 



PATMOS. 



ganized city government. As Ancient Babylon, and 
Jerusalem the daughter of Zion the mother. The toi- 
son is not a woman but a city, and as such, belonging to 
the sphere of civil life by analogy, its counterpart must 
be found in the religious sphere, and must be a corre- 
sponding organization of religious people. These peo- 
ple it is obvious were professors of the Christian re- 
ligion; obvious because there is no other religious peo- 
ple with like characteristics and environments. Now 
the analogies are easily traced. The woman was seen 
in heaven. This excites wonder in the beholder ; or 
the religious organization was intimately connected 
with the government under which it existed. The wom- 
an seemed to be so enveloped by the sunlight that it 
constituted a robe for her. Like this would be a re- 
ligious organization especially protected and fostered 
by the sovereign of the government. The moon was 
under her feet. So the principal officers of the govern- 
ment were in a civil sense subject to the will of the re- 
ligious organization, crowned with twelve stars. This 
religious organization was conspicuous by the array of 
civil offices it filled in the government. 

A male child belongs to civil life. It is the toison 
for a corresponding person in the religious life. As the 
offspring of the woman it is of the same general nature ; 
the emblem of a city, the toison of a religious organiza- 
tion. It is different from the other religious organiza- 
tion by as much as a male differs from a female. A 
female religious organization so to speak brings into 
being a male religious organization. As the child is 
caught up to God and his throne, so the new organiza- 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 123 

tion is intimately connected with the Supreme Being, 
comes under his supervision and providential guidance 
and conduct in its history. The child was destined to 
rule the nations with a rod of iron. Nations belong to 
civil life. They are toisons for associations of people 
in the religious life. The new organization was to have 
control of these religious associations and exercise ar- 
bitrary authority over them ; like a despot ruling his 
people with an iron rod, the emblem of severity. The 
toison of the great red dragon finds its interpretation in 
the book of Daniel. It is a government or dynasty 
of rulers. The interpreting angel tells Daniel it repre- 
sents the fourth great government or last that existed 
contemporary with the Kingdom of Heaven and s^hall 
be destroyed by it. It is the same dynasty that John 
saw. He saw it at the period of its history when the 
crown was upon the head ; or in literal description, 
when the dynasty was an indivisible power in contra- 
distinction to the period when it existed in ten divisions, 
each a ruling government. This hint also marks the 
period when the new male out of the old female re- 
ligious organization came into existence ; before the ten 
divisions of the government were inaugurated. 

The dragon endeavored to destroy the male child as 
soon as it was born. The managers of the seven-head- 
ed dynasty made every effort in their power to prevent 
the establishment of the new male-religious organiza- 
tion; but the Divine Being overruled their plans and 
the organization became a fact. Coincident with this 
fact the female religious organization passed from pub- 
lic into private existence; to remain in obscurity 1260 



124 



PATMOS. 



years. This answers to the toisons of the woman flee- 
ing into the wilderness to be in the place provided by 
the Divine Providence 1260 days. 

We have before us a prediction of the most interest- 
ing period in the history of the Kingdom of Heaven. 
A prediction to the seven churches, but history to us. 
The history is introduced at this stage of the Revela- 
tion in order to a better understanding of the judg- 
ments belonging to the seven vials and coincident and 
consequent events. The Revelator goes back to the 
beginning and brings up a series of events on a new 
line ; events paralleled in time with those already detail- 
ed but entirely different in their nature. We have fol- 
lowed a sketch of the subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven 
in their individuality. Now we have before us these 
same subjects in an associated capacity, known as a 
church organization. 

About the year 300 A. D. the Christian church, by 
which is meant the external organization comprehend- 
ing all who professed to be Christians, whether members 
of the Kingdom of Heaven or not, was constituted of a 
multiplicity of societies of professing Christians, small 
or large, according to their environments, with graded 
offices filled with incumbents denominated deacons, 
elders, overseers and metropolitan overseers. Each so- 
ciety, officered by an elder and deacon, was originally 
independent of all others in its legislative, judicial and 
executive capacity, recognizing as of binding authority 
customs only recommended by the voice of the whole 
Christian body for the general good. In time two or more 
societies became grouped into one organization, yet 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 125 

preserving distinct its own identity. Hence arose bishop- 
rics, and metropolitan bishoprics. In reahty the 
entire Christian world was composed of societies, dis- 
tinct and independent of each other as associations. 
There was, however, a growing tendency to centraliza- 
tion fostered by ambitious men and too readily ac- 
quiesced in by the people, until at the period men- 
tioned the majority in power, not in numbers, was ready 
in disposition for a consolidation of all the societies into 
one organization under one head ; like the Roman 
government. At the same time Christianity had pro- 
gressed in numbers and influence so as to become an 
important factor in the Roman government. Vast 
numbers of Christians were Roman soldiers, officers, and 
privates. The civil offices in large proportion were 
filled by them. For their sakes the government be- 
came very tolerant of the Christian religion until event- 
ually the iieir to the imperial power, Constantine, prior 
to his assumption of the purple, issued a decree of tol- 
eration and admitted the Christians to the privileges 
and emoluments of his government. 

It was under the banner of the cross that he won his 
way to the throne. Hence the church in its constitution 
as simple independent societies, like the woman seen in 
heaven clothed with the sun, with the moon under her 
feet and crowned with a constellation of stars, was in- 
timately connected with the Roman government by 
force of numbers and influence; was protected by the 
imperial power; filled many civil offices, and contribut- 
ed many legions to the victorious army of Constantine 
the Great ; and, as the woman had reached the time 



126 



PATiVIOS. 



of parturition and was in the very throes of it, the 
church was ready as an organization to pass into an 
organization inaugurated by Constantine, known as 
" church and state/' with Constantine as its supreme 
head, to which all the societies became subjected and 
subordinated. This new church organization was as 
much different from the old in every sense as a male 
differs from a female. But before the consummation of 
this event, the pagan priesthood and their adherents, 
whose religion was the religion of the state, apprehend- 
ing this calamity to paganism, left no means untried to 
avert it, thus the dragon, the toison for the pagan 
Roman government, would devour the male child the 
moment it was born ; but it was caught up to God and 
to his throne ; — which represents the providences 
which culminated in the establishment of the new Chris- 
tian organization of church and state, as a consolidated 
body centralized in one person. Upon this event the 
church organization as simple independent associations 
had no public recognition, and had existence only as 
ft was maintained by Christians opposed to the Con- 
stantinian regime, and who conducted their affairs in a 
private manner. It was predicted that this state of 
things would continue 1260 years, which period closed 
in the i6th century. When Christianity was adopted 
as the state religion, paganism was abolished as such. 

But paganism did not relinquish its place without a 
struggle. When it was no longer a battle vi et armis '* 
it became a contest of intellectual might. The inventive 
genius was aroused to devise methods to regain the 
lost field until the imperial decree settled the contro- 



THE HISTORY OI' THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 127 



versy and paganism was relegated to the relation to the 
government recently occupied by the Christian church. 
This is described by the toison : " There was war in 
heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the 
dragon, and the dragon fought against his angels and 
prevailed not; neither was their place found any more 
in heaven. Thus pagan Rome gave place to Christian 
Rome. The dragon lost its seven heads and ten horns. 
It was cast out and then known as that old serpent 
called the devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole 
world. He was cast out into the " earth — the toison 
for nation — and his angels were cast out with him. 
Paganism was no longer an organized system, but was 
simply maintained privately in the Roman nation. 
This was regarded as a great triumph, as it was, by 
the Christian religion which John hears celebrated in 
joyful acclamations in heaven. Now is come salvation 
and strength and the kingdom of our God and the 
power of his Christ. The accuser of our brethren is 
cast down. This scene takes place in the heaven of the 
vision-earth, which stands for the government of which 
the church was an integral part. The enemy was over- 
come by the truth of the gospel ; the atonement of Christ, 
preached persistently for 300 years; for doing which 
thousands upon thousands were sacrificed upon the 
altar of paganism ; expressed by the toison, They 
overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word 
of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto the 
death.** But what was gratulatory for the government was 
deprecatory for the nation as such. The wicked influ- 
ence which had controlled the world through the civil 



128 



PATMOS. 



power would now be exerted directly upon the people 
individually. Woe, to the inhabiters of the earth and 
the sea for the devil has come down to you having 
great wrath, because he knoweth he hath but a 
short time/* Of this scene we have a most vivid toi- 
sonic description, which, as we are now quite familiar 
with the various toisons used, we may give the predic- 
tion in literal terms. When paganism was ousted from 
its connection with the civil government, and was re- 
duced to sentiment held simply by individuals, its ad- 
herents endeavored to instigate the adherents of 
church and state to annihilate all the individual Chris- 
tian societies extant that were held to be the cause of 
the new church and state organization. And indeed their 
machinations had the effect of starting worldly Chris- 
tians on the unholy mission of bringing them all into 
unity with the established order of things. They were 
persistently persecuted, and finally were pressed as 
was supposed, out of existence. But God had pro- 
vided for their preservation. They disappeared, it is 
true, from public observation, and lived in obscurity 
and that was to be their destiny for 1260 years. A 
time times and a half time.*' The interpretation of which 
toison we have in Daniel by implication to be 1260 
years, a year, two years, and a half year of years. Not 
only did paganism instigate persecution against the 
Christian societies that maintained their ancient forms 
and customs, but endeavored to corrupt their Chris- 
tian principles. They would unite with them in mem- 
bership and disseminate among them pagan principles 
and sentiments, but when the societies disappeared, the 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 129 

sentiments were imbibed by the individuals of the 
nation who made no pretense to religion. The 
earth thus helped the woman. Then the dragon, 
angry with the woman because he could not 
wreak his vengeance on her, made war on the remnant 
of her seed, which kept the commandments of God 
and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. How these 
two lines illuminate this entire vision. Indeed the true 
followers of Christ under the regime of church and 
state still maintained the primitive order of the Chris- 
tian church, its simple organization ; its customs and 
pure doctrines. It was this class that paganism, 
mingling with and knowing their sentiments, was mean 
enough to turn influence against to the government 
and secure their punishment. What a vivid insight do 
these toisons give us of the true inwardness of those 
times ; and bring out in clear relief the image of true 
Christianity and the terrible cloud that settled down on 
the kingdom of heaven for 1260 years. 

PARAGRAPH 3. 

As in the case of the woman seen in heaven, clothed 
with the sun, so the beast seen rising up out of the sea, 
having seven heads and ten horns, is by common con- 
sent a toison for the Roman government, from the rise 
to the close of its existence ; an interpretation which 
the principles of analogy most clearly bring out. This 
beast in its Pagan regime, we have seen, was most inti- 
mately connected with the woman clothed with the 
sun, and hence its toisonic history is naturally intro- 
duced at this stage of the vision. 

$ 



130 



PATMOS. 



John in vision leaves his position in the door of the 
vision-heaven, and takes a new position on the shore of 
the sea of the vision-earth. Out of the sea rises the 
beast. It differs somewhat, in some of its features from 
the dragon that attacked the woman. This beast has 
crowns upon his horns, and on his heads the name of 
blasphemy. John saw the dragon at the period when 
the crowns, which are the emblems of supremacy, were 
on the heads ; but he saw this beast at the period when 
the crowns were upon the horns, showing that the 
supremacy had passed away from the heads to the 
horns. This toison indicates the time in history when 
the events which the vision reveals occurred. 

That there may be no mistake the revelator proceeds 
to identify the beast. In form it was like a leopard, its 
feet like those of a bear; its mouth like that of a lion; and 
the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great 
authority. " And I saw," says John, " one of his heads 
wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed, 
and all the world wondered after the beast." The beast 
belonged to the animal kingdom. It finds its counter- 
part in the political life. It was a complete combina- 
tion of animal parts, seven heads, ten horns, leopard 
shaped, with beards feet, and lion's mouth. This indi- 
cates a combination in the political world, in an organ- 
ized government, of various forms of civil polity and 
successive dynasties possessing unique characteristics. 
The leopard is the emblem of agility and fleetness of 
movement ; bear's feet, the emblem of fixed grasp, and 
a lion's mouth, of voracity. 

The government was characterized by rapid progress 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 131 

in conquest; by holding the countries conquered; and 
by assimilating them all to its own polity. This govern- 
ment moreover was intimately connected, at some 
stage of its existence, with the Kingdom of Heaven. At 
one time and another, it passed through seven forms or 
a complete routine of governmental politics ; and finally 
expanded into ten different dynasties or political pow- 
ers. The beast as a whole was a legitimate successor 
of the dragon. It had superseded the dragon, a toison 
showing that this new government took the place in 
history of the old Pagan government. The marks of 
identification are so clear that no one can fail to dis- 
cover the Roman government at the period of its his- 
tory when it was existing as ten different dynasties. 
When Pagan Rome was superseded by Christian 
Rome, then the general supposition was that that 
would be the end of the Roman regime. But it was 
not. Christian Rome, as to its civil polity, was Roman 
still, exciting the wonder of all Christendom of which 
world " is the toison. In this prediction by the toisons 
we have noted, for the sake of clearness, some events 
of actual history. At the time of John's vision Rome 
had passed through five forms of governmental polity ; 
the regal, the consular, the dictatorial, the decemviral, 
and the tribunitial. The Pagan imperial held sway in 
John's days. Subsequently the Christian Roman gov- 
ernment superseded the Pagan imperial. These are 
the seven heads of the beast. The head that was wound- 
ed unto death and was healed was the sixth, repre- 
senting the Pagan imperial. The healing was effected 
by inaugurating the Christian imperial, as in the com- 



132 



PATMOS. 



bination of church and state. The civil department 
was dominant and the church subordinate. During 
the supremacy of the various forms of government men- 
tioned and represented by the seven heads, Rome 
made its conquest of the world of which it was undis- 
puted master. The last form lasted until it was broken 
up by various tribes of barbarians which planted them- 
selves in the territory of the Roman empire, and estab- 
lished ten new forms of government, coeval in their 
supremacy. The present governments of Europe are 
their legitimate successors. 

The toison the dragon gave him his power his seat 
and great authority,'* becomes now strikingly signifi- 
cant. Pagan Rome, constituted of the religious and 
civil elements intimately combined, of which the emperor 
was the head, both priest and king, and governed with 
absolute sway, was superseded by Christian Rome, of 
which the civil sovereign was also head and chief ruler 
of the religious department and also ruled the churches 
with a rod of iron. This same constitution was perpet- 
uated in the ten sovereignties that succeeded imperial 
Christian Rome, so that Pagan Rome was virtually 
perpetuated in Christian Rome and the ten kingdoms. 

Head is the emblem of the intelligence, the seat of 
thought and will. The toison upon his heads the 
name of blasphemy'' denotes an usurpation of the 
Divine prerogatives and the exercise of the Divine au- 
thority. That is the prediction. The historical reality 
verifies it. The Christian emperors never thought of 
consulting the word of God for authority to legislate 
for the Christian churches whether as individuals or in 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 133 

councils. The councils themselves were brought into 
existence by their orders. Their legislation was mark- 
ed out for them and their dissolution was subject to 
their dicta. The enactments of the councils had no 
force until sanctioned by the civil head ; and whatever 
they did sanction had the force of law to be enforced 
by pains and penalties. Thus the government stood 
in the place of God to the church. It was a blasphemer 
and transmitted its character to the ten sovereignties 
that succeeded it. Pagan Rome, Christian Rome, the 
ten succeeding sovereignties, are virtually the same in 
constitution. In this light it is easy to understand 
how people could worship the dragon which had gone 
out of existence. ''Worship*' is the emblem of Divine 
homage. Itis paying Divine honors. In worshiping the 
'beast of seven heads and ten horns with the crowns 
on the horns," divine honors were paid to the dragon. 
In history both Pagan Rome, and Christian Rome, and 
its successors were regarded as divine institutions Ex- 
isting and acting by divine right, so that opposition or 
resistance or obedience to them were regarded as di- 
rected to the Divine Being. 

John sees the beast at the period when the crowns 
were upon the horns. This points in history to the period 
when the ten Kingdoms were permanently establish- 
ed in the stead of Christian imperial Rome ; and toi- 
sons he describes as seen at the same time, or im- 
mediately in conjunction, refer to events occurring af- ^ 
ter imperial Rome was subverted and the barbarians 
had established their kingdom in its stead. Hence 
we have the following character given to the ten bar- 



134 



PATMOS. 



barian kingdoms on Roman territory: "A mouth 
speaking great things and blasphemies ; blaspheming 
against God, blaspheming his name, and his tabernacle, 
and them that dwell in Heaven ; it was given unto him 
to make war with the saints, and to over come them, 
and power was given him over all kindreds and tongues 
and nations and all that dwell upon the earth, shall 
worship him, whose names are not written in the book 
of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world. The prediction in language is the following : 

The barbarian governments, all of which were church 
and state governments, in legislating for the religious 
department, instead of taking God's word as a rule of 
faith and practice, assumed authority to speak for God, 
enforcing their decrees as of divine authority, whether 
in accordance with His known will or not ; and their 
people were compelled to receive them as from God 
and accordingly to obey them. " Name stands as an 
emblem of character and attributes. They predicate the 
character and attributes of God to human beings, ex- 
alting them to divine honors and prerogatives. The 
tabernacle is the type of the Christian church organiza- 
tion. They prostituted the church to their own menial 
purposes, making it an agency for their own aggran- 
dizement, and even persons whom they regarded as hav- 
ing passed into the heavenly state from the church, 
were clothed with divine powers and privileges to 
whom Christians were compelled to pay divine honors. 
Thus was the Almighty Himself dragged down from His 
throne to the plane of the creature. And the people were 
forced to worship and serve the creature more than the 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 135 

creator. These governments also persecuted the sub- 
jects of the Kingdom of Heaven, the heretics, so 
called, who opposed their perversions of gospel truth 
and their corruption of the primitive institutions of 
Christianity. These dissentients they kept in com- 
plete subjection; and they controlled with absolute 
sway all the Christian organizations under their respect- 
ive governments which are seen by John as kindreds 
and tongues and nations." Meanwhile, men who had 
never been converted, and were members of these 
Christian organizations, shall regard these governments 
as divine institutions to be obeyed as such. The con- 
tinuance of the blasphemies by the beast without any 
effectual opposition was to be forty-two months : a toi- 
son for the continuance of the domination of these gov- 
ernments over the Christian organizations in the man- 
ner described 1260 years. In order to see the perfect 
verification of the predictions inferred from the toisons 
of the beast and dragon, we have only to make a run- 
ning reference to the historical event. In the year A. 
D. 475, the last Emperor of Rome, Augustulus, was 
deposed, and '*the barbarians held possession of nearly 
the entire western empire.** These barbarians consisted 
of ten different tribes or peoples : The Vandals, Suevi, 
the Visigoths, the Alans, theBurgundians, the Franks, the 
Saxons, the Ostrogoths, the Lombards and the Heruli. 
As a general rule they all adopted the rule of the old 
Roman Empire. They adopted the Christian as the 
state religion, and made it a criminal offense to oppose 
the established order of church and state, its various in- 
stitutions, customs and decrees. The rulers were re- 



136 



PATMOS. 



garded as holding their positions and exercising their 
authority by divine right, by the former Romans and 
their descendants, of which fact John's toison is " all 
that dwell on the earth shall worship him." The 
earth " standing here for the Roman nation or people 
as in other connections. They adopted the codes of 
Theodosius and Justinian against heretics, and enforced 
them. In one word : All the civil laws and religious 
rules and regulations, and church customs and rites 
and practices, private and public, which they found in 
vogue at the time they took possession of the country, 
they adopted entire ; and imbibed the old Roman spirit 
that kept them all in force on the people. Hence the 
identification of the counterparts of the toisons of the 
dragon, the beast and ten horns, is complete. They 
are Pagan Rome, Christian Rome, and the ten govern- 
ments that succeeded on Roman territory, Christian 
Rome. This identification was essential to the right 
interpretation of the toisons that follow. The predic- 
tion " He that leadeth into captivity, shall go into cap- 
tivity ; he that killeth with the sword, must be killed 
with the sword," is a warning of the doom of the perse- 
cuting powers. They are evidently to meet with a simi- 
lar fate of their innocent victims. With this assurance 
the saints may rest content that their blood shall yet be 
avenged. "Here is the patience and faith of the 
saints." 



THETA. 



. PARAGRAPH i. 

HE four beasts, which Daniel in vision saw, arose 
out of the sea. They are interpreted to repre- 
sent four governments that were to prevail in the world 
successively ; the fourth in connection with the King- 
dom of Heaven. The history shows us that each 
government originated with the people, and did not 
grow out of a preceding dynasty. 

The last or fourth, the Roman dynasty, sprung from 
a colony of people that fled from Troy to Italy, who 
chose as their first king, Romulus, from whom the 
nation took its name. So the beast that John saw in 
vision arose out of the sea, or in literal language, 
originated among the people considered as an unor- 
ganized mass. Indeed, Daniel's fourth beast and 
John's beast with seven heads and ten horns are iden- 
tical. In contradistinction to this origin, we have in 
the vision a beast rising out of the earth. John says 
it had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a 
dragon; and he exerciseth all the power of the first 
beast "before him;'* or, in the presence of the first 
beast, and causeth the earth and them which dwell 
therein to worship the first beast whose deadly 

(137) 




138 



PATMOS. 



wound was healed ; and he doeth great wonders (or 
miracles), so that he maketh fire come down from 
Heaven on the earth in the sight of men ; and he de- 
ceiveth them that dwell on the earth by those miracles 
which he had power to do in the presence of the beast. 
We will examine particularly the specifications of this 
toison. It arose out of the earth. It originated in 
an organized nation, of which "earth" is the toison. 
It had two horns like a lamb. " Horn " of a beast is 
the emblem of civil pow^er or form of government. 
These horns of course appeared on the head after the 
beast had reached maturity. Like a lamb's head, its 
head produced two horns at the same time ; and like 
a lamb's horns they were neither for offense nor de- 
fense; as the lamb's head " is his weapon of offense 
and defense. The horns completed the head and 
shows that the beast was a male. When the horns 
appeared the beast had reached maturity. He spoke 
as a dragon or the dragon heretofore seen in vision. 
His appearance did not denote his real nature. To 
look at him one would say he was a lamb ; but his 
voice was that of a dragon, showing that he was a 
dragon. He existed at the time that the beast 
with seven heads and ten horns existed with the 
crowns on the horns ; and he had power over all 
other beasts, just as the first had in the same region of 
country. 

The two beasts ravaged over the same territory alike 
at the same time. The dragon beast, for the sake of 
clearness, is seen in vision to be endowed with human 
intelligence and to perform acts accordingly. It caused 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 139 

the earth and they that dwell therein to worship the 
first beast whose deadly wound was healed. 

We may now make up the prediction given by the 
toison. 

During the sovereignty of the seventh form of the 
government, indicated by the toison of the beast with 
seven heads and ten horns, which is here identified as 
being the head that was healed of a deadly wound, 
which shows it to be the form that was originated out 
of the sixth of the series, a second civil government 
shall appear originating in the nation under the sway 
of the former ; and shall establish itself in the same 
territory. Its jurisdiction and authority shall be of the 
same character as that of the seventh form ; made up 
of two departments and being of the same spirit and 
policy of the sixth form from which the seventh sprang. 
In its legislative and executory departments it shall 
cause the nation in which it originated and the relig- 
ious people belonging to it, to regard the seventh form 
as of divine origin ; and worthy to be obeyed and sub- 
mitted to, as to God, its author. 

This new government shall assume divine preroga- 
tives and powers, and make the other government be- 
lieve, as well as its subjects, that all its official acts are 
supernatural and of divine authority. From its suprem- 
acy, it issues decrees that materially affect the entire 
national interests, just as the lightning from heaven 
affects the earth when it strikes it. These decrees 
shall be promulgated by the consent of the religious 
portion of the government, of which " men,*' who, be- 
longing to the civil sphere, is the toison. This mani- 



140 



PATMOS. 



festation of supernatural authority shall be admitted by 
the other government to be legitimate ; and be indorsed 
by it. The two governments now operating in the 
same territory over the same subjects in perfect accord, 
the dragon power takes a new departure. We need 
only detail the prediction given us in toisons. This 
dragon form of government, by its superior manage- 
ment, prevailed upon the religious people, belonging 
to the other government, and living within the nation- 
ality over which it held sway, to organize another 
government exactly like the original seventh form 
which should be co-extensive in territory, co-equal in au- 
thority, and identical in regime. Analogous to an image 
made to the beast whose deadly wound was healed. 
When this new ''imperium in imperio " was organized 
the dragon government gave it its constitution, prero- 
gatives and powers; analogous to the dragon-beast 
giving life to the image made to the ten horned beast. 

It also made it a prime provision of the constitution of 
the new imperium that laws should be enacted, and 
put in force, to cut off, from the rights and priv- 
ileges of the imperium, all subjects who did not 
acquiesce in its pretensions to a divine origin, and obey 
its decrees as of divine authority ; of which the toison 
is " power given to the image to speak, and cause that 
as many as would not worship the image of the beast 
should be killed.*' Then follows the decree to that 
end. " He causeth all both small and great, rich and 
poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right 
hand or in their foreheads; and that no man might buy 
or sell, save he that had the mark or the name of the 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 141 

beast or the number of his name.*' To comprehend 
the scope of this toisonic-decree, we need to analyze it. 
The characters comprehended by rich and poor, small 
and great, free and bond, are different classes in civil 
life. They are toisons of classes in the religious life. 
The specification embraces all the religious persons of 
every degree, from the highest to the lowest, in the 
nation and under the new imperium. The mark in the 
right hand is equivalent to the oath of allegiance ; and 
the mark in the forehead is equivalent to a religious 
vow, like that taken in the rite of baptism administered 
by putting water on the forehead. There were two 
classes of persons brought under the decree, citizens 
of the state as such, and religious persons as such. 
The former were to swear allegiance to the new im- 
perium, and the latter give a vow of consecration to it. 
Only such persons would be allowed to enjoy the full 
rights, privileges, emoluments, and muniments of the 
new imperium. To prove his true adherence to it, he 
must be able to prove it by the register of his name 
as a religious devotee; or by his enrollment on the 
governmental records as a citizen, either under the 
regime of the old or of the new government. He must 
have the mark, or the name of the beast, which is the 
same thing, or the number of his name. Now, in order 
to the clear unfolding of the toisons here described, 
the revelator proceeds to give us the number of the 
beast ; a number that actually contains his name ; so 
that when we have the name of the beast, its historical 
counterpart may readily be determined, and the his- 
torical reaUty of the whole toisonic description be 



142 



PATMOS. 



easily traced. It is the number of a man. The num- 
ber is in English, six hundred three score and six. In 
Greek, (Chi. zi, St.) x. <?. 5. 

The number indicated by these characters John saw 
stamped on the beast with two horns. There they 
were not Greek characters or letters, but letters of the 
language spoken by the nation from which the govern- 
ment sprung of which the dragon-beast is the toison. 

Now we know already that the seventh form of 
government like which another government was orga- 
nized, at the dictation of the government that sprung 
from the nation and not from the people, used in all its 
legislation and judicial proceedings, the Latin language. 
So thatthe characters chi. zi. and st. when converted into 
Latin letters that make the same number 666 or x. <? 5 
will spell the name of the beast. It will be the number 
of his name. That name in Greek, in which John wrote 
is Xarii^^oq^ or Latinus in Latin. This conclusion is 
readily verified, A is equivalent to 30, a to I, r to 300, e 
to 5, \ to 10. V to 50, o to 70, 9 to 200=666, or to chi. 
zi. st. This is the name of a man. Man belongs to 
the sphere of civil life. He is a toison for a person or 
a class of persons in the religious life. Latin is the 
name therefore of this class or organization of religious 
persons. But name is the emblem for character, or 
that which is essential to a distinctiveness of existence ; 
and character is the toison for distinguishing features 
of the religious organization, and the number describes 
these features. It is Latin in contradistinction to any 
other race of human beings or nationality. The beast 
with two horns like a Lamb is the toison of a religious 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 143 

organization of the Latin race and nation — or Roman 
nation. That is its origin. Hence this organization 
composed of two departments of government, that in- 
vented the new universal imperium, co-equal and 
coeval with the seventh form of the Roman govern- 
ment, as descended to and perpetuated in the ten 
Gothic Kingdoms, was of Latin origin and sprung from 
the Roman nation. We now go to history to verify 
this prediction of the toisons of the two horned beast 
and the image. 

We have here brought together three governmental 
establishments existing on the same territory at nearly 
the same period. Moreover they all have intimate 
connection with the Kingdom of Heaven. The period 
of their domination over the saints was to be 1260 
years. We have already seen that the seventh form, 
or Christian imperial, of the Roman government was 
succeeded by the kingdoms established by the bar- 
barians, all of which adopted its civil constitution and 
religion. They were all state and church governments, 
of which the king was the head. These governments 
all persecuted heretics. They carried out the laws 
against them enacted by Theodosius and Justinian the 
emperors of the Roman empire in its seventh form. 
These heretics were criminals, according to the laws of 
the Empire ; but they were saints of God, according to 
the gospel of the kingdom. In about two centuries 
from the subversion of the Roman empire, and the in- 
auguration of the barbarian kingdoms, a twofold civil 
and ecclesiastical monarchy could have been recog- 
nized, existing and performing all its functions, like the 



144 



PATMOS. 



kingdoms themselves, only it existed within one of 
them, " An imperium in imperio." It was modelled 
after the Christian imperial form, as church and state, 
exercising both civil and ecclesiastical authority and 
power like it. This was the Roman church made a 
hierarchy by its acquiring territory and exercising civil 
jurisdiction over its inhabitants, of which the Bishop was 
the monarch or supreme ruler. This government from 
the first was lamb-like in appearance, but all its enact- 
ments partook of the spirit of Paganism of the former 
sixth, or Pagan imperial form of the Roman empire. 
Just as Paganism treated Christians it treated heretics. 
It professed to have the Spirit of Christ and to be 
guided by gospel principles. But, " No other monarchy 
was ever so jealous of its prerogatives; so quick and 
unappeasable in its resentment ; nor so devoid of pity 
towards its victims." This hierarchy, the proper desig- 
nation of a church and state government, was founded 
at Rome, the capital of Italy and of the Roman empire. 

It was originally a simple Christian society, with its 
elder and deacon. It grew into a bishopric. Then a 
metropolitan see. At the councils assembled by the 
emperors, the heads supreme of the Christian world, it 
took a leading part in legislation and its adjudications 
were regarded with great respect by their peers of 
other sees, and bishoprics. 

The kings of France, about the year 700 A. D., 
gave the Bishop of Rome or Pope a civil dominion 
over Latium, and other territory adjacent. This two- 
fold government was indorsed by subsequent French 
kings, who added more territory, so that the church of 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 145 

Rome became a hierarchy, its head exercising all the 
prerogatives, civil and military power, as well as eccle- 
siastical jurisdiction, like the kings of France, within 
whose jurisdiction it maintained its sway. On a smaller 
scale it exercised all the powers of Christian im- 
perial Rome. 

It were easy to refer to the edicts of the popes claim- 
ing their jurisdiction by divine right, and entitling their 
form of government a veritable monarchy, so that a 
beast is consistently a toison of it as it is of other mon- 
archies. But this hierarchy was not content with its 
narrow limits. Its head would be the chief of all the 
bishops of the world ; and most of the so-called 
church history, for hundreds of years, is simply a record 
of the pope^s efforts to gain the bishopric of the world. 
He would also be king of the world. He would be 
like Constantine the Great, universal head of the civil 
and ecclesiastical worlds. The era of Constantine, cov- 
ering a period from 320 to 476 A. D., was the grand- 
est the world ever saw. When it ended, the gloom of 
midnight settled upon it. Why not restore that order 
of things in church and state ? And who so competent 
in every way to be the universal monarch of church 
and state as the bishop of Rome? Pope Gregory VII 
is reputed to have wrought miracles, and many other 
bishops and priests affected to do the same. The peo- 
ple, not much improved from barbarism, were easily 
deceived by their devices, so that in time the acts of 
the pope of Rome were received as the acts of God. 
In the period from 858 to 867 A. D. the pretensions of 
the popes of Rome became settled principles of church 

10 



146 



PATMOS. 



and state throughout the world, being resisted only by 
the see of Constantinople, It was decreed that the 
Roman church instituted all other churches of every 
rank and grade ; and the pope of right was universal 
bishop. It was reserved for Gregory VIII. to accom- 
plish the design of decreeing himself universal bishop ; 
of throwing off all allegiance to the civil sovereigns, and 
assuming kingly prerogatives himself. The people in 
all the ten kingdoms came to acquiesce in the new re- 
gime ; and thus was the image to the beast, in its 
seventh head, completed ; and a universal hierarchy in- 
augurated, styled the Roman Catholic church. This 
hierarchy became in time so mighty that no king in 
Christendom ventured to deny its pretensions or dis- 
obey its edicts. We note here two important facts in 
history to which reference will be made hereafter. 

The Roman empire, the Christian imperial, was in 
constitution, policy and spirit, still existing in the sov- 
ereignties composed of church and state, among whom 
its territory was distributed after the year 476 A. D. 

The church of Rome also still existed in the univer- 
sal hierarchy with the civil power added to its peroga- 
tives, and universal sway added to its power. When- 
ever it shall be divested of its civil power, and universal 
dominion, it will simply revert to its simple condition 
as a church. 

This great hierarchy, like its counterpart sovereignty, 
persecuted heretics. The heretics were those persons 
who, in toisonic description, would not worship the im- 
age of the beast, and who did not receive the mark of 
the beast with two horns. They are the same that the 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 147 

ten horned beast made war on and overcame them. 
They were the subjects of Christ's Kingdom. The uni- 
versal hierarchy is one of the persecuting powers of 
history. Its coadjutor in persecution was to exist in 
that character 1260 years; and it also would maintain 
the same character until the close of that period. A 
cursory review of the history of the subjects of Christ's 
Kingdom at this point will not be unprofitable for 
future use. They were existing under the Roman em- 
pire in simple societies, until Constant! ne the Great 
usurped the divine prerogatives, organized the church 
and state, and virtually abolished these simple organ- 
izations, when their lovers and advocates, and of the 
original simplicity of the church and its ordinances, be- 
cametheobjectsof hatred and persecution. Next we find 
them existing in large numbers in the church and state 
establishment, in ecclesiastical organizations enlarged 
into bishoprics, as slaves under masters with such rights 
and privileges as their masters chose to give them ; 
like the church of Rome, Antioch, Carthage, Constan- 
tinople, etc. All of which were subject to one head, 
the emperor, yet each being independent of the other. 
When Christian imperial Rome succumbed to barbar- 
ism and new kingdoms were organized, these subjects of 
the kingdom found themselves under the jurisdiction 
of bishops who were independent of one another, with 
no persecuting power in existence to destroy them. 
In a few years, however, the heads of sees brought the 
barbarians under their religious control and when their 
kingdoms were set, prevailed on them to incorporate^ 
the church element with it, thereby inaugurating the 



148 



PATMOS. 



former regime; only the church and state had ten 
heads instead of one. They also suppressed all dis- 
sentients to this state of government and church polity; 
and these dissentients were the subjects of the King- 
dom of Heaven. In time the see of Rome, that em- 
braced its proportionate number of these subjects of 
the kingdom, kept in abeyance for it by the civil 
power, expanded into the universal hierarchy embrac- 
ing all the subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven belong- 
ing to all the sees, and who were the subjects of sur- 
veillance and punishment whenever they were outspoken 
for the pure gospel and its institutions, by all the va- 
rious sovereigns instigated by the decrees of the pope, 
who now reigned king of kings and lord of lords ; as 
the vicegerent of God. During all this period of per- 
secution we are interested to know how few or how 
many there were of these subjects of the Kingdom of 
Heaven. The toisons of John's vision give us an ade- 
quate conception. 

PARAGRAPH 2. 

After John had seen the beasts rising out of the sea, 
and the earth, and noted their characteristics, and 
their connection with the Kingdom of Heaven, he seems 
to have returned to his former position in the vision- 
heaven. 

Here he had a view of old Mount Zion, where the 
tabernacle formerly stood, before Solomon built the 
temple on Mount Moriah. Now the Lamb stood on it, 
and with him one hundred and forty-four thousand hav- 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 149 

ing His Father's name written in their foreheads. This 
throng is not the same that John saw immediately af- 
ter the scenes of the sixth seal. They were distin- 
guished by the same mark, but belonged to a different 
class of toisons. The former were taken from the 
twelve tribes of Israel, and were toisons of the sub- 
jects of the Kingdom of God that suffered persecution 
under Pagan and Christian imperial Rome. These are 
toisons of those Christians that were persecuted under 
Christian imperial Rome as it existed under the seventh 
form of government in the ten kingdoms. The former 
wore the seal of God in their foreheads, which is an 
emblem of baptism, and the baptism is the toison of 
their characters as Christians. The latter had the 
Father's name written on their foreheads, which is here 
placed in contrast with others who wore the mark or 
the name of the beast. These are toisons of the true 
servants of God as associated with those who were not. 
Their baptism was genuine, the baptism of others 
around them was spurious. With the former there was 
a multitude which no man could number, that stood 
before the throne clothed with white robes and palms 
in their hands. With the latter there was no such 
multitude, showing the limited number of real Christians 
of this period in comparison with the number of that 
period. 

John heard a new song sang before the throne which 
was peculiar to the one hundred and forty-four thou- 
sand. No man could sing this song but they ; thus in- 
dicating that the experience of these persons was en- 
tirely different from that of ordinary Christians. " They 



150 



PATMOS. 



were redeemed from the earth." A toison in language 
signifying that they were kept by the power of God 
through faith unto salvation, although the persecuting 
powers did their utmost to destroy them. 

John has their character fully described. They were 
pure in their lives, like virgins. They had not been 
seduced by the false professors among whom they had 
been thrown. They were redeemed from among men. 
" Men is a toison for religious persons ; the members 
of the hierarchies. " The first fruits unto God and the 
Lamb show that they were regarded as Christians 
sharing more than ordinarily the divine complacency, 
and were made the special attendants of the Lamb. 
They were highly honored. They had maintained 
their integrity through all the corruptions of the times, 
in both church and state. Such is a cursory view of 
the work of the Kingdom of Heaven during the period 
of the domination of the beast with two horns, after it 
was merged into the image to the first beast. 

These were emphatically the dark ages of the King- 
dom of Heaven, but its gatherings from mankind were 
the choicest of all the following of Christ in all ages. 



IOTA. 



PARAGRAPH i. 




OW a new era begins to dawn on the Kingdom 
of Heaven. 



The toisons take us back to the period when the 
two witnesses ascended up to Heaven in a cloud, at 
the close of the sixth trumpet. Between John's visions 
of those toisons and these now to be examined, it was 
necessary to interject the toisons of the woman clothed 
with the sun; the beast with the crowns on his horns ; 
the beast with horns like a lamb ; and the image made 
to the first beast. Or, in literal language, in order to 
a clear understanding of the prediction, it was neces- 
ary, after the account of the dawn of the reformation, 
dating from Luther's preaching the pure gospel, as 
taught by the toison of the little open-book which John 
ate, and subsequent efforts to extend the gospel, and 
the struggles of the Kingdom of Heaven with the 
persecuting powers, to give some account of the size 
and character of these persecuting powers. To this 
end we have the destiny of the simple societies under 
which the Kingdom of Heaven existed ; then some 
account of the rise of the church and state establish- 
ment under Constantine ; then a description of the 



152 



PATMOS. 



origin and growth and character of the Roman hier- 
archy ; and finally a history of the inception, establish- 
ment, consolidation, and characteristics of the Roman 
Catholic hierarchy, the supreme persecutor of heretics. 
During its growth, the one hundred and forty-four 
thousand, with the Father's name written in their fore- 
heads, were gathered into the Kingdom of Heaven ; 
and these are noted because they were conspicuous 
in their opposition to the great hierarchy. 

After the angel had given John the little book, he 
sees another angel fly in the midst of Heaven having 
the everlasting gospel to preach unto all them that 
dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kindred, 
and tongue and people, saying with a loud voice, 
''Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His 
judgment is come, and worship him that made heaven 
and earth, and sea and the fountains of water.** This 
angel, of course, like others before brought to view, 
was a spiritual agent of the Lamb to manage a depart- 
ment in the conduct of the toisons. John in vision 
doubtless saw the agencies, means, and appliances, to 
accomplish his plans. We now have the meaning of 
the toisons so well understood that we may proceed to 
give the literal prediction which they portend. Im- 
mediately after the firm establishment of the universal 
hierarchy, the heralds of the pure gospel began to 
appear in almost every country over which it domi- 
nated. They preached to the citizens of the organized 
nations ; and to the various ecclesiastical organizations. 
Up to this time the people generally were regarding 
the great hierarchy as in the place of God ; and im- 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 153 

plicitly following its decreetals as though there was 
no word of God in existence. The preachers in- 
veighed against this degraded condition of things and 
taught the people to worship God directly, and not 
through human mediums, for in His providence He was 
the maker of the government, and nations, and the 
people, and all that was politically connected with 
them, as the fountains are connected with the land and 
sea; and the reason they gave for general reformation 
in their religious practices, was that God would destroy 
all these false political gods, and all their adherents. 
Of course, this preaching had its effect. Thousands 
were converted to the Kingdom of Heaven. Imme- 
diately, another divine agent appears on the scene, 
and his sub-agents, the preachers of the gospel, 
began to see that the powers arrayed against the 
Kingdom of Heaven were trembling on their founda- 
tions, and they boldly declared the judgments of God 
at hand. Babylon is fallen, is fallen. That great 
city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of 
the wrath of her fornication." 

This saying " is the key to much that follows. So 
we pause long enough to determine its real meaning. 
" Fornication** is the emblem of unnatural and illicit 
intercourse between the female and male sex. "Wrath** 
is a translation of the Greek word ''thumos** and is no 
adequate expression of it. "Thumos** is an enthusiasm 
in a matter that in man borders on phrenzy. *'To. 
drink the wine ** of any thing is to be brought com- 
pletely under its influence. The nations,** as has been 
frequently determined, is a toison for religious orga- 



154 



PATMOS. 



nization. A " city " is a perfected social organization, 
the capital of a state, and of course analogy indicates a 
religious organization as its counterpart, as the central 
power of other organizations of its kind. Its name 
Babylon indicates its character. We have then for 
toisons in this description: a capital city of a social con- 
dition and character like Babylon of former times ; the 
most degraded in vice and all manner of wickedness of 
any city of ancient days. This city is represented as 
corrupting, by its practices and license-laws, all nations 
with which it comes in contact. It formed an unnatural 
connection with another social organization as much 
unlike itself as a male is unlike a female. This city is 
doomed. It is to be destroyed by the judgments of 
God. 

The prediction is : that by the power of the gospel, 
the old gospel of Apostolic times, a religious organiza- 
tion, a supreme head of other like organizations in con- 
junction with a partner — a social organization, which 
have corrupted themselves with the most wicked and 
blasphemous religious doctrines and practices; and in- 
jected the poison into all the organizations under their 
sway, shall come to an end. That religious organiza- 
tion so doomed can be no other than the Roman 
Catholic hierarchy, composed of the ecclesiastical and 
civil powers of which the toison is the "image to the 
first beast,'* and here called a city,'* whose character 
is Babylonish.** 

The third angel that John sees sends out gospel 
messengers who preach directly to the adherents of the 
hierarchical government, and of the great universal 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 155 

hierarchy itself, warning all people against their corrup- 
tions in state and church, and predicting a terrible 
doom to all who connect themselves with them. " They 
shall drink the wine of the wrath of God/' 

They shall experience his just indignation in a 
punishment of terrible anguish and distress, in the pres- 
ence of the holy angels and of the Lamb ; and this 
vengeance shall be eternal. This shall be the character 
of the preaching of these persons under the third angel. 

Here is the patience of the saints.'' Here is the 
reason that they may rest content with their lot. The 
avengement will come, and they who are waiting for 
God are they who keep the commandments of God 
and the faith of Jesus. They are the subjects of the 
Kingdom of Heaven. 

The toisons under the leadership of the three angels 
just considered follow closely upon that of the little 
open book given to John, — which is a prediction of 
the new preaching of the gospel after the establish- 
ment of the universal hierarchy. The history is, that 
like the angel flying through the midst of heaven hav- 
ing the everlasting gospel to preach, converted men 
went everywhere preaching the old gospel of Christ 
and exposing the falsities and blasphemies of the Ro- 
man Catholic hierarchy. They established societies 
on various platforms of religious views, and operated 
from various centers directly of course against the hier- 
archy. These associations were denominated Lu- 
therans, Calvinists, Baptists, etc. They were given, in 
a collective capacity, the name Protestant, in contradis- 
tinction to the name Catholic, which embraced the 



156 



PATMOS. 



hierarchy. Hence there existed two parties represent- 
ing Christianity. The Catholics and the Protestants, 
each struggHngto supersede the other. The Protestants 
were pronounced heretics by the Catholics. They, as 
heretics of old and all through the history of the per- 
secuting powers, embraced in their communion the sub- 
jects of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

By the Protestants were originated various methods 
besides public preaching to convert Catholics. Bibles 
were printed and distributed among them ; religious 
books were multiplied, and scattered broadcast; Evan- 
gelists traveled far and near ; and there was a general 
awakening among the hierarchists and tens of thousands 
converted to the old faith of the gospel. Not content 
with these general agencies to extend the simple gos- 
pel, associations were organized whose specialty it was 
to operate directly upon the Roman Catholic hierarchy. 
They sent out men, prepared for the work by learning 
and ability, to expose the false claims of the hierarchy 
to the Christian name and foredooming their establish- 
ment to disintegration and final dissolution. These 
associations culminated in the present Christian alliance. 
Besides these agencies and appliances, men of the evan- 
gelical spirit sought contact with Catholics on all occa- 
sions to instruct them in the truths of the gospel, and 
convince them of their errors, and hold up to their fears 
the eternal doom awaiting those that adhered to the 
principles of the government with which their church 
affiliated, and to the dogmas of their faith. 

From the days of Luther down to near the year 
1780 the objective of Christian work among evangeHcals 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 157 

was the Roman Catholic hierarchy, — with what success 
need not be detailed here ; only the history is that most 
of the evangelical denominations in Christendom had 
their origin and incipient growth in this grand struggle, 
and their members were mostly converts from the 
Catholic hierarchy. But during all this period, in every 
country where the Catholics had affliliations with the 
governments and could control their action, directly, 
or indirectly, these heretics were persecuted. Hence 
we have the voice to John from heaven — the vision- 
heaven — Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord 
from henceforth. Yea, saith the spirit, that they may 
rest from their labors and their works do follow them. 
This refers to the martyrs of that wonderful period. 
We have already referred to the persecution of the 
Huguenots in France. 

We may mention that of the Piedmontese, the En- 
glish in the reign of Mary ; and especially individual 
members of the hierarchy for whose punishment the 
inquisition was established and perpetuated when they 
were convicted or suspected of heresy. 

PARAGRAPH 2. 

Upon the eminent success of evangelical efforts in the 
Catholic hierarchy, we have an incidental view of the 
effect of the new preaching of the gospel upon the 
civil communities over which the hierarchy dominated. 

The harvest time had come to the earth ; and the 
reapers were entering upon the work of gathering the 
harvest. Also the vintage had come and the grapes 



158 



PATMOS. 



were gathered, and the juice expressed, and the wine 
made. 

The " earth whose harvest had come is the toison 
for a nation organized under a government. The 
" earth has been used from the first of these visions as 
a toison for the nation to which the subjects of the King- 
dom of Heaven sustained civil relations. It continued 
to be used as such, although the one nation had ex- 
panded into many nations to which they now belonged. 
Hence when the angel was directed to reap the earth 
his work embraced all these nations into which the 
original had expanded. 

The crop produced by the earth stands for the social 
benefits which the nations had brought to men. "The 
harvest time having come,'* shows that the nations had 
reached a period in their history when their social bene- 
ficial influence was at an end. Hence "to gather the 
harvest " indicates that divine providence has no fur- 
ther use for them in connection with His kingdom on 
earth ; and that they only await the autumn of decay 
and the winter of death. 

The vintage is not necessary to social subsistence,but 
is a source of luxury and dissipation. Soon after the 
wheat and barley harvest the grapes ripen. By this 
we are taught that the influence of the nations for good 
to society had ceased, and that prolonging their exist- 
ence would not contribute to the sun of human happi- 
ness, but only to its destruction by promoting dissipa- 
tion and its attendant misery. Their present influence 
on general society is to be interrupted and they be re- 
moved from the world. This influence for evil is re- 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 159 

garded as a curse which providence turns against the 
nations to their own destruction. 

When the grapes were gathered they were put into 
the wine-press of the wrath of God/' and '*the wine- 
press was trodden without the city." The city** is the 
same as that that was named Babylon. The toison for 
the hierarchy " treading the wine-press outside the 
city *' is the toison for estimating the pernicious social 
influence of the nations separately from the hierarchy. 
This influence was astonishingly extensive, as much so 
as a stream of grape juice would be extending from the 
wine-press for a thousand and six hundred furlongs 
or two hundred miles. The inference is that the nations 
connected with the great hierarchy had finished their 
usefulness among men, and must pass away like all 
such nations before them. These toisons are simply 
predictive of the toisons soon to appear in the ' earth * 
for its annihilation, and had the book of John's visions 
been understood, as we believe they were at the first in 
the seven churches of Asia, by the reformers and sub- 
sequently by Christians generally, the doom of the 
European nations would have been clearly indicated, 
just as the history is gradually but surely unfolding it. 



KAPPA. 



PARAGRAPH i. 

UST before the sounding of the seventh trumpet 
we were told that the second woe is past, and 
the third woe cometh quickly. 

The second woe consisted of the destruction of the 
eastern Roman empire by the Turks. The toisons, 
brought to view since, have not disclosed the nature of 
the third woe, but have been miscellaneous and 
explanatory in their character : As the woman clothed 
with the sun; the beast rising out of the sea; the 
beast rising out of the earth ; the image made to the 
first beast ; the three angels besetting Babylon in dif- 
ferent ways ; the number of the saints secured during 
the domination of the image ; and the prediction of 
the harvesting the earth, and gathering the vintage of 
the earth. 

Now commences a series of toisons constituting the 
third woe : — 

A marvelous sign appears in the vision-heaven, seven 
angels having the seven last plagues. In them is 
filled up the wrath of God." This " wrath of God is 
the toison for the complete avengement of the subjects 
of the Kingdom of Heaven on the persecuting powers. 
(i6o) 




THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 161 

The souls under the altar cried for it; and the killed 
saints in every age have been crying for it; the judg- 
ments of God also have been falling upon the 
homicides along the ages ; but the persecutors have 
appeared in succession for century after century. No 
sooner was one destroyed than another appeared in its 
place. Pagan Rome was removed only to make room 
for Christian imperial Rome. It was removed only to 
be succeeded by the ten kingdoms ; and coeval with 
them appeared the Romish hierarchy, whose authority 
was limited at first to the Roman See, then came the 
Roman universal hierarchy into which the Roman See 
was merged. 

All these governments had persecuted heretics. 
Now the successors of Christian imperial Rome, whether 
social or ecclesiastical establishments, are to be anni- 
hilated. This news from the throne creates in the 
vision-heaven unusual demonstrations of joy. John 
sees a sea of glass mingled with fire, and on it stand- 
ing those who had gotten the victory over the beast and 
over his image, and over his mark, and over the number 
of his name, having the harps of God. **In this 
jubilee were joined the saints of both the Mosaic and 
Christian dispensations. The one celebrated the justice 
and the other the mercy of God ; and the music was so 
arranged that they were responsive one to the other. 
They sung the song of Moses and the song of the 
Lamb. When the Mosaic saints chanted " Great and 
marvelous are Thy works Lord God Almighty, " the 
Christians responded just and true are Thy ways. Thou 
King of Saints. " and then followed the grand chorus 

II 



162 



PATMOS. 



in concert, " Who shall not fear Thee and glorify Thy 
name for Thou only art holy ; for all nations shall come 
and worship before Thee, for Thy judgments are made 
manifest. This song was predictive. " Nations " by 
analogy find their counterparts in Christian organiza- 
tions, all of which by the will of God were to become 
true and sincere worshipers of God and the Lamb. 

This great event would follow immediately upon the 
judgments of God here predicted. As antecedent to 
the judgments of God that were to be visited upon the 
persecuting powers, John is presented with a view of 
the spiritual agencies intimately interested in their in- 
fliction. They were a new order of angels. " Clothed 
in pure and white linen/' shows them to be an order 
of glorified saints redeemed from among men, wearing 
a uniform like that of the Son of Man, walking in the 
midst of the golden candle-sticks. They came out of 
the temple. They had been in the tabernacle of the 
testimony. That is, in the most holy place where God 
had personally met them at the mercy seat, like the 
High Priest of the Mosaic economy. They had been 
ministers of the gospel, and were now entrusted with 
the responsible mission of destroying the persecuting 
powers. They received their commission through one 
of the beasts ; a toison for a superior order of intelli- 
gences which John in the beginning saw standing in 
the midst of the throne. They received each a golden 
bowl full of the wrath of the ever living God. These 
bowls are emblems of the prayers of the saints. ** Full 
of the wrath of God " indicates that the avengement, 
so long waited for, has come. God lives and will 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 163 

avenge his elect. The bowls came from God. He 
was present in the temple as was evident from the 
cloud of glory that filled it. He had brought the bowls 
which he had been receiving for ages. They are now 
filled with his judgments and handed to the angels to 
be poured out upon them that had killed his saints on 
the earth. God was to continue in the temple to give 
audience to the judgment-angels, when necessary to 
their work, until the seven plagues had effected their 
purpose. This circumstance is indicated by no man 
being able to enter the temple during that period ; 
simply because God was there in His glory, and was 
now executing His will in the judgment coming in an- 
swer to the prayers of His people, who are represented 
by the toison man," so that there was no need of their 
coming to His mercy seat with their grievances any 
more. The voice" which John heard coming from 
the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways 
and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the 
earth," was hence the voice of God. The earth was 
the vision-earth which has been from the first the toi- 
son of the nation or nations under organized govern- 
ments, to which the saints belonged as citizens. 

The first bowl was emptied upon the earth. Its con- 
tents struck the men who had the mark of the beast, 
and them who worshiped his image, and caused sores 
in their flesh which were exceedingly painful and an- 
noying. In order to understand the nature of the 
judgments here represented we must analyze these toi- 
sons in an exhaustive manner. 

The earth is the nation or nations where the King- 



164 



PATMOS. 



dom of Heaven was conducting its operations. The 
judgments fell upon the citizens of these nations. But 
they belonged to a particular class and they alone were 
affected. Men " belonging to the civil sphere finds 
its analogy in the religious or ecclesiastical sphere. 
Persons professing religion, but who had the mark of 
the beast alone, were affected. The beast we have seen 
is the toison for the hierarchical government, estab- 
lished in the Roman nation as church and state. " To 
have his mark signifies an active membership in this 
hierarchy as a religious person. The 'image to this 
beast we have determined to be the imperium in im- 
perio,'* established within the territory of the ten king- 
doms, denominated the Roman universal hierarchy. 
To worship the image is to attribute divine prerogative, 
and authority to this hierarchy. The men whom the 
contents of the vial struck were members of both the 
hierarchy and the civil governments within whose 
bounds the hierarchy was established. The poison 
struck their bodies and made sores. The physical is by 
analogy the toison for the thinking and feeling mind. 
Sores are toisons for mental troubles. These troubles 
could not be alleviated and were almost unendurable. 
They were distracted on account of them. As they 
were members of the hierarchy, and not merely citizens, 
the troubles were of a religious nature. They affected 
them as hierarchists. Nothing could affect these hier- 
archists more than to lose their influence over the civil 
governments ; and for the latter to withdraw their ma- 
terial support, and refuse to lend the arm of civil power 
in destroying heretics. The prediction therefore 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 165 

IS : That the new preaching of the gospel should in 
time so affect the governments connected with the hier- 
archy, as to alienate their interests in its behalf, and by 
their edicts refuse to co-operate with it in crushing 
out heresy. The heresy would become so wide by 
spread as to embrace a vast proportion of their sub- 
jects, so that the annihilation of heresy would involve 
the virtual destruction of the nations themselves. 

The history is that at first Germany refused to co- 
operate with the hierarchy in destroying heresy. Then 
England and Scotland. Then France, Italy and Switzer- 
land. Just in proportion as the great reformation 
spread, the governments extant were influenced by it 
and lost sympathy with the spirit of the Roman Catho- 
lic hierarchy; until finally persecutions ceased just for 
want of civil power to execute the decrees of the hier- 
archy. This has been a greater source of trouble to 
Roman Catholic hierarchists for two centuries past than 
all the efforts of the Protestants against them. 

The second vial was poured out upon the sea ; and 
the third upon the rivers and fountains of water and 
they became blood; and every living soul on them 
died. 

The sea " we have determined to be the people 
that constitute the nations. As the ten horned beast 
arose out of the sea, its counterpart government had 
its origin among the people, in contradistinction to the 
Romish hierarchy, which originated in the Roman na- 
tion, like the two horned beast that arose out of the 
earth. The sea was so poisoned that everything de- 
pending for existence on its waters died. The rivers 



1()6 



PATMOS. 



and fountains were located in the earth, and were es- 
sential to its productiveness and healthfulness. They 
were so poisoned as to be no longer useful, but dele- 
terious to health and destructive to life. 

The " rivers and fountains are toisons for sources of 
prosperity and happiness of a nation. The prediction 
therefore is : that the people generally shall be so af- 
fected by the religious revolution inaugurated by the 
reformers that they will no longer afford subsistence to 
anything that depends upon them for it. 

The institutions of the hierarchy drew their support, 
not so much from the government, as from the people 
generally. This source of revenue was dried up. Nor 
shall the sources of national prosperity any longer be 
drawn on to support the hierarchy. This shall ma- 
terially weaken its power, and create an apprehension 
of impending dissolution. 

This prediction is confirmed by the ejaculation of 
the angel of the waters, who justified the judgments 
of God revealed in these toisons : They have shed the 
blood of saints and prophets and thou hast given them 
blood to drink, for they are worthy.'' The saints and 
prophets*' are toisons, as we have seen, of the subjects 
of the Kingdom of God. To *'shed their blood" was 
to kill them, or in other words cut them off from all the 
benefits of hierarchy by excommunication and anath- 
emas. So the hierarchists shall receive like treatment. 
They shall be deprived of the means of maintaining 
their institutions, so that they shall not afford them the 
spiritual emoluments of former times. 

This prediction has had its historical realization. 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 167 

As the new preaching of the gospel progressed, the 
people of the nations were converted in large num- 
bers to what was called Protestantism. They formed 
new religious organizations to which they devoted all 
their personal powers and financial productions, in this 
manner depleting, to an alarming degree, the resources 
of the hierarchy The hierarchy was consequently 
compelled to contract her plans, abridge her operations, 
and relinquish vast areas of her mission territory. She 
had persecuted the people of God, now she expe- 
riences the consequences. She had shed blood, now 
she drinks blood. The history of the various relig- 
ious denominations in existence a century and a 
quarter ago, is made up of facts and events that de- 
pleted in every way the possibilities of the hierarchy. 
While the poisons of the vials were producing their 
disastrous effects on the men wearing the mark of the 
beast, and worshiping its image, and turning the sea 
into blood, as also the rivers and fountains, whereby 
the earth and sea presented a horrifying aspect, 
the sun in the sky receives the contents of a fourth 
vial. It was like a world of oxygen poured into the 
sun of our firmament. Its heat became so intense 
that men were scorched by it. They could not escape 
it. It made them furious against providence. They 
blasphemed the name of Him who had power over 
these plagues, and they repented not to give Him glory. 
The "men are the hierarchists. The sun the head ^ 
of the nation and government under which they 
existed. The sun which was wont to be to men a 
great source of all kinds of natural blessings is now a 



168 



PATMOS. 



force that only inflicts the deepest misery upon 
them. 

This toison teaches that the supreme head of the 
nation who had fostered the hierarchy by favorable 
legislation, and protected its interests and promoted its 
welfare by civil and military power, now has become 
radically changed in its estimate of its usefulness and 
disposition toward it. Its legislation is intolerant and 
insupportable. We must understand that from the 
time that the Romish hierarchy was organized with its 
twofold civil and ecclesiastical power, all through 
its change by merging itself into the universal hier- 
archy, the French nation has been its especial patron ; 
and its rulers have ever loaned their civil and military 
power to aid her in her schemes of aggrandizement, 
and in her efforts to destroy heresy. France first gave 
the Romish church territory with its people and civil 
organization whereby it constructed itself into a hier- 
archy. In the protection and defense of her domin- 
ions, the resources of France were always available. 
When the great universal hierarchy claimed universal 
ecclesiastical and civil dominion of the world, France 
stood by and promoted her pretensions with all its 
authority and power. In her aid to crush out heresy 
France inaugurated St. Bartholomew's day. But the 
leaven of the new preaching of the gospel wrought a 
supernatural change in the spirit of the nation of 
France. Before the close of the i8th century even 
the supreme rulers of its government exhibited a 
deadly hostiUty to the hierarchy. 

The government of France put an end forever to the 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 169 

career of persecution of heretics by the papacy ; and 
after that the hierarchy was completely nullified in that 
country ; its institutions abolished, its revenues from 
the national treasury withheld, and its organization vir- 
tually broken up. And yet, with these terrible evi- 
dences of the wrath of the Almighty, the hierarchists 
continued to issue their blasphemous dogmas, such as 
the infallibility of the pope, and the immaculate con- 
ception of the Virgin Mary, which the popes foisted 
upon the Catholic community as articles of faith under 
pain of excommunication, and the pope's anathemas, 
thus adding to former assumptions of the prerogatives 
of God, these blasphemies. Thus the benignant sun 
was changed to a destructive fire as a plague on the 
men that had the mark of the beast, and who wor- 
shiped its image. But this did not cure them of their 
blasphemies. 

The fifth vial was poured out upon the seat of the 
beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness, and they 
grieved their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God 
of Heaven because of their pains and their sores and 
repented not of their deeds. 

At this stage of the vision it must be borne in mind 
that there is only one beast as a toison. There were 
two, the ten horned and the two horned beasts, but the 
latter has disappeared by being merged, as we have 
seen, into the image to the first beast. Hence the ten 
horned beast only remains. This beast is the toison 
for the government, or rather dynasty of rulers with 
which the image is intimately connected, and under 
whose civil rule the subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven 



170 



PATMOS. 



are living. Formerly the image was intimately con- 
nected with all the ten kingdoms, which expression 
comprehends all the governments that succeeded the 
old Roman empire, more or less in number. But later 
in the progress of events, it was most intimately con- 
nected with one of these governments within whose 
territory also, as a coincidence, we find the saints more 
prominent in their struggle with the hierarchy which 
the image represents. That government or dynasty of 
rulers was France. Hence the beast here seen by 
John is the toison of the French government as the 
legitimate successor of Christian imperial Rome, in its 
constitution and spirit. It differed from it only in ex- 
tent of territory. 

The seat of the beast* ' or lair is the toison for the 
capital city of the dynasty where was located its throne, 
deposited its archives ; and whence were issued its de- 
crees, and emanated its civil and military power. The 
contents of the vial were poured out on this " seat of 
the beast,*' and his kingdom was full of darkness. 
The reahn of control in its sphere is here meant by 
kingdom of the beast. It is the toison for the country 
and people over whom the French government bore 
sway. " And they gnawed their tongues for pain.'* 
The particle " they ** refers to those who had the mark 
of the beast and worshiped his image. The " pain ** 
was physical and is the toison for great mental distress. 

Darkness** is the toison for mental bewilderment and 
distraction. The complete state of anarchy at the 
capital alone produces this state of mind in the people, 
ruled from that center of government. 



J 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 171 

The upheaval of the state and disorganization of so- 
ciety of the main civil power, on which the hierarchy 
mostly depended for defense and maintenance, would 
cause the mental distress alluded to. The prediction 
is therefore as follows: The time would come when 
the effect of the new preaching of the gospel on the 
people dwelling at the capital city of the dynasty, inti- 
mately associated with the hierarchy, would be to de- 
stroy their confidence in pretensions to divine preroga- 
tives, as also the pretensions of the dynasty itself to 
divine right to bear sway and lead them to discard the 
authority of the hierarchy and throw off their allegiance 
to the dynasty, and create thereby a political revolution 
and a threatened dissolution of the state. This state 
of anarchy at the capital would unsettle society 
throughout the realm, and every where inspire hier- 
archists with alarm at the apprehended annihilation of 
their organization. 

Moreover, like all superstitious fanatics, the leading 
hierarchists will regard this state of things as the con- 
sequence of the divine displeasure for their lack of 
zeal and progress in religion, and will move to make 
amends by multiplying the dogmas and ceremonies of 
their worship and enforcing them upon their followers; 
the toison for which course of action is blasphemy of 
the God of Heaven.*' The mention, in connection 
with pain that caused them to gnaw their tongues, of 
sores,'* shows these persons to be the same upon 
whom the contents of the first vial fell, and as all have 
seen, they are hierarchists, or active members of the 
Roman Catholic hierarchy. With these premises we 



172 



PATMOS. 



go again to history to verify the prediction. After St. 
Bartholomew's day, the Roman Catholic hierarchy 
was more intimately connected with the French govern- 
ment than with any other civil power in Europe. The 
fact alone that the most distinguished prime ministers 
that under sovereign authority guided and controlled 
the destinies of France, for a period of seventy-five 
years, were Cardinals Richelieu, in the reign of Louis 
XIII., Mazarin, under Louis XIV., and Fleury under 
Louis XV., shows this intimate connection. 

Through their influence over the respective 
sovereigns was due the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
in the first instance, and as often afterwards as the edict 
was confirmed ; showing that through them the pope 
in religious matters ruled the French nation, which 
maintained his arrogant assumptions, not only, but 
gave his adherents civil and military aid in destroying 
their Protestant enemies, the Huguenots. Also the 
subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven, figure more prom- 
inently in French history after St. Bartholomew's day 
than in the history of any other government within 
the territory of the old Roman Empire. After the 
grant of the edict of Nantes, by Henry Navarre, who 
became King of France by succession, the Huguenots 
made the most of their opportunities in preaching the 
gospel and extending the Protestant religion, as it was 
called, with little interruption or obstruction for twenty 
or more years, and continued to propagate "heresy," 
as the true faith was called, even after the edict was 
finally revoked by Louis XIV., 1685, ninety years after 
it was granted. France at this period was full of 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 173 



Huguenots when the great persecution was inaugurated 
and perpetuated until the saints " had become nearly- 
extinct. Besides the thousands that were destroyed in 
a hundred ways, more than a half million became exiles, 
nor did this persistent persecution cease for about a 
century afterwards, 1789. Here was a period of perse- 
cution against the subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven 
continuing almost without interruption for two hun- 
dred years, in which more saints were involved than 
in any other persecution known to history. I think it 
will not be disputed that the beast on whose seat the 
vial was poured is the toison for the French nation ; 
and they who gnawed their tongues for pain are 
toisons for the hierarchists of Rome. For a quarter of a 
century prior to the scenes that forever put an end to 
persecution by the civil powers, France was noted for 
the number of its learned men known as philosophers. 
They did not profess to be Catholics or Huguenots. 

The aim of their philosophical speculations was the 
destruction of Christianity. Christianity to them was 
the Roman Catholic hierarchy, they inquired no fur- 
ther into its teachings or practices than the hierarchy. 
Its spirit and policy for hundreds of years, and espe- 
cially for the last two centuries, in their relations to the 
Huguenots, their own fellow-citizens, had convinced them 
that Christianity, as they knew it, was an unmitigated 
curse in the world ; and it was their mission to destroy 
it. Voltaire was the most distinguished leader of the 
philosophical party of the times. They were called in- 
fidels by the Catholics. They flooded France with 
their writings, and swayed large and frequent audiences 



174 



PATMOS 



by their eloquence. The one theme was the religious 
villainies of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. The leaven 
was put into the French mind. It permeated the 
French people. It was no longer a contest between 
Catholics and Protestants, but Roman Catholic Chris- 
tianity and infidelity ; an infidelity so subtle, so clandes- 
tine, yet so bold, — so active and persistent, that not 
only could the hierarchy not get at it to strike it a 
blow, like that that destroyed the Huguenots, nor anti- 
dote the poison it was insinuating into the blood of the 
entire nation. This poison at length had the desired 
effect. The body politic was corrupted to the heart. 
The appetite had been created and rendered insatiable 
for civil and religious liberty. This appetite appeared 
publicly for the first time in the assembly of the States 
General May 7, 1789, in the "popular party'* as it is 
known in that assembly. It named itself their National 
Assembly.'' The first act proposed in the States Gen- 
eral was a declaration of rights, subversive of the old 
constitution. The new constitution took away the real 
power of the King though the office was not abolished. 
This act aroused the populace of Paris to seize upon 
their newly acquired rights and avenge themselves 
on the royal family which had so long denied them 
these rights. By mob power the king, queen, and 
royal children were removed from Versailles to Paris 
and made close prisoners. In the meantime the States 
General removed there also. 

In about a year from this date, all hereditary titles, 
orders, armorial bearings, and other marks of distinc- 
tion of ranks of society, were abolished. In November 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 175 



a decree was passed ejecting from their benefices " all 
members of the clergy who refused to take an oath to 
maintain to the utmost the new constitution/* The 
pope sent his disapproval of the oath and hence vast 
numbers of the clergy refused to take it. The de- 
cree was executed. In a short time the king, queen 
and their children were the only members, with one 
exception, of the royal family left in France. The rest 
had left the country. 

War was imminent between the National Assembly 
and the governments interested in the old order of 
things. August loth, 1791, the populace attacked the 
Tuileries and massacred all who opposed or were there 
to oppose their designs. The royal family fled to the 
National Assembly for refuge, but in four days were 
made prisoners of state. In the meantime foreign ar- 
mies entered France and commenced the war. This 
was the signal for a general massacre of all priests who 
refused to take the oath of allegiance. 

The bloody work did not stop here, but continued un- 
til thousands of obnoxious sympathizers with royalty 
and the priesthood were destroyed. On the 22d day 
of September royalty was abolished in France by the 
legislature ordained under the new constitution. 

Thus was the fifth vial poured out upon the seat of 
the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness ; and 
they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed 
the God of Heaven because of their pains and their 
sores, and repented not of their deeds. The contents 
of the vial, it will be seen, were the sentiments dissem- 
inated among the people against royalty and priestcraft 



176 



PATMOS. 



and in favor of civil and religious liberty as the out- 
growth of the new preaching of the gospel; coincident 
with our Saviour*s prediction, " I came not to send 
peace on earth but a sword/' The so-called French 
revolution was the sword. It was the only providential 
remedy of the monstrosities committed against the 
subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven by the persecuting 
powers, the French dynasty and the Roman Catholic 
hierarchy. But the effects of the French revolution did 
not stop with France. 

The spirit of liberty extended to all the nations with- 
in the territory of the old Roman empire and although 
it did not overthrow their constitutions, it did disrupt 
almost universally their connection with the Roman 
Catholic hierarchy, so that it could no longer avail itself 
of the civil power in its persecution of heretics. In 
Italy this spirit of civil and ecclesiastical freedom 
pushed the government to the extreme act of depriving 
the hierarchy of its civil department, and reducing it to 
a purely ecclesiastical organization, just as it was before 
the kings of France made it a temporal sovereignty, 
thus constituting it the Romish hierarchy. That estab- 
lishment, so long the image to the first beast, is now 
simply as it is called, a church. Thus far the contents 
of the vials have done their terrible work on the perse- 
cuting powers most effectively. The beast and his 
image have been effectually checked in their ravages 
against the saints. We must now see what disposition 
is to be made of them. 

The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great 
river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 177 

that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared. 
We have here a toison in figurative language which re- 
quires to be converted into Hteral terms in order to 
know what the toison itself is. 

Babylon, in the time of Belshazzar, its dissolute king, 
was the objective of the eastern army composed of 
Medes and Persians led by Cyrus. The city was inac- 
cessible. There were no military devices in the pos- 
session of the enemy adequate to breach the wall or 
break down its gates. Belshazzar, his army, his thou- 
sand lords, and people felt perfectly secure, and did 
nothing to drive away the enemy, but gave themselves 
up to revelry and debauchery. The great river Eu- 
phrates ran through the city from north to south, 
entering it under a northern gate and issuing from it at 
a southern gate. 

When military appliances failed, strategy succeeded. 
The river, a few miles north of the city, was turned 
into an artificial lake leaving its bed dry, and space 
under the gate over the channel for the passage of the 
invading army. The army entered and Babylon was 
taken. We have already seen that Babylon is used as 
the figurative name of the universal hierarchy ; but this 
name was given after the hierarchy was denominated a 
city, and the name determined its character ; but having 
received that name it continues to be applied to it. A 
city is the toison for a religious organization, according 
to analogy. 

This city was inaccessible only by one avenue. That 
was obstructed. That obstruction removed, the forces 
besieging it could enter and capture it. The obstruc- 

12 



178 



PATMOS. 



tion was removed, the army entered, and the city 
taken. 

The vial was poured out upon the obstruction and 
removed it, and the kings entered and conquered. 
So the hierarchy itself is inaccessible to gospel forces — 
the preachers with their appliances. There are civil 
obstructions which will hold them at bay. Hierarchists 
feel secure against the forces arrayed against it. The 
only obstruction in the way that is removable is the 
temporal power, still constituting it a civil as well as an 
ecclesiastical government, whereby it has the power, 
and right to keep gospel workers out of its territory. 
This prediction is : that this obstruction shall be re- 
moved, and the gospel army have access to the hier- 
archy itself, and effect its overthrow and dissolution. 
The history is: that Victor Immanuel, in A. D. 1870, 
annulled by decree the temporal power of the pope so 
that it lost its civil department of government, and 
from that day onward evangelical Christians have been 
carrying the gospel in a hundred ways to the very doors 
of the Vatican. 

The way of the kings of the east was thus opened 
to the conquest of Babylon. 

We must now survey the field of history and ascer- 
tain the status of the persecuting powers, and conse- 
quently what work the Kingdom of Heaven has before 
it to accomplish, in order to its final triumph. The 
French revolution virtually subverted the dynasty, the 
successor of the Christian imperial Rome which was the 
immediate successor of pagan imperial Rome, whose 
seat, power and constitution, and territory it inherited. 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 179 

Eaganism, as an organization, was disintegrated, but its 
spirit survived and lived in the Christian organization. 
When the ten barbarian kingdoms succeeded Christian 
imperial Rome, they inherited its constitution, spirit, 
and territory. Now that the dynasty, most intimately 
connected with the universal hierarchy, is defunct, 
there remain the descendants of the original ten king- 
doms, in the Spanish, Portuguese, English, Prussian, 
Swedish, Austrian, Dutch and Russian monarchies. 
These monarchies rest on the same constitution as 
Christian Rome did. They are hierarchies of church 
and state, of which the sovereign is the supreme head. 
They have the same spirit of intolerance against 
heretics,'* or in more modern terms, against dissenters 
from that regime, though the power of physical 
punishment for contumacy is inactive, and hence we 
hear no more of the former methods of systematic per- 
secution, the powers still exist. It is true the Chris- 
tian organizations with which the states are organically 
connected are known by other names, as the Greek 
church, the Lutheran, the Church of England and in 
the others the Roman church, and though the Roman 
Catholic hierarchy, as such, is no longer recognized by 
them, still their constitutions and spirit do not ma- 
terially differ from those of their original ancestor. 
Christian imperial Rome. Again : The universal hier- 
archy which formerly controlled all these powers, with 
one exception, for the purpose of its own existence and 
propagation, and to whose fiat they obsequiously 
bowed, having lost its influence over them, and practi- 
cal connection with them, and its own civil department, 



4b 



180 



PATMOS. 



has reverted, as already observed, to its primitive sta- 
tus as a church organization simply. Its toison is no 
longer "the image to the first beast," nor the beast 
with two horns like a lamb/* Now a true church of 
Christ is a society of the subjects of the Kingdom of 
Heaven, known by any convenient and expressive ap- 
pellation, all having a common faith, practice and ob- 
ject in view, in an organized form adapted to attain 
this object. So any other organized society claiming 
the characteristics of a church of Christ, may be anal- 
ogous to this society in form, and hence have in vision 
a like toison to represent it. Their claims and general 
practice, and procedures are alike. 

The true church promotes the simple gospel truths 
and institutions, entrusted to them by Christ. The 
spurious church promotes the dogmas, practices and 
institutions, devised by human ingenuity for purposes 
of self-aggrandizement. 

The toison of either may be a "woman" or a "city." 
As the " woman clothed with the sun," The " City of 
God," the "New Jerusalem," or the harlot " — 
"Babylon" according to the character of the organ- 
ization. 

As both claimed to be teaching the truth, the one 
must be the true and the other the false teacher ; of 
which the toison is the true prophet, or the false prophet. 
Accordingly the next toisons that John sees are the 
dragon, the beast, and the false prophet out of the 
mouths of which come three unclean spirits like frogs, 
which are characterized as spirits of devils, working 
miracles, going forth unto the kings of the earth, and 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 181 

of the whole world to gather them to the battle of 
that great day of God Almighty. And he gathered 
them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue 
Armageddon. 

It will be noted that the 'beast does not make war 
directly now on the saints. That day is past ; but with 
the spirit of persecution at heart, without the power to 
give it physical demonstration, it resorts to an entirely 
new method of accomplishing its object. 

In this new method the dragon, and the false prophet, 
with the beast, are in accord. The mouth gives utter- 
ance to animal feelings that move the volitions. 

Spirits'' coming from the mouth are toisons for 
volitions in the minds of the persecuting powers issued 
in the form of decrees which, when executed, create 
new kinds of agencies for the purposes of coping 
with heretics (or dissenters). 

These agencies are like frogs in comparison with the 
beast with seven heads and ten horns. 

They are a groveling, stupid, and loathsome class of 
characters, that legitimately result from the state of 
society generated by the nature of the government and 
Roman church. They are the natural fruits of despot- 
ism and superstition. These characters in society are 
marvelously pretentious in their views of government 
and religion; and inventive in schemes to accomplish 
their purposes. The order of things that would suit 
their desires would annihilate all legitimate govern- ^ 
ment and moral religion. 

Their desires realized would subvert gospel religion ; 
produce anarchy ; and ultimately settle society down 



182 



PATMOS. 



upon a basis of the most cruel and iron despotism in 
both church and state. 

These spirits finally sought to form a great combina- 
tion of the kings of the earth, and of the whole world 
to crush out the saints of God. " Kings belong to 
the sphere of civil life as rulers. They are toisons of 
leaders of religion ; not only in the nations occupying 
the territory of the old Roman empire, but of all other 
territory. Of course the religion to which these 
leaders belong comprehends all the false systems of the 
world. All are intensely interested in crushing out the 
evangelical religion. 

The contest is not to be a military contest ; but 
social, scientific, and moral. The prediction is : That 
there shall spring up among men, originating under 
the governments of the successors of the Christian 
imperial Rome, and the polity of the Catholic church 
the natural offspring of both the government and the 
church, three distinct classes of persons who have a 
natural instinct to subvert the divine religion as known 
among evangelical Christians. We are not told that 
the spirits were created, commissioned and sent forth 
on their mission by the dragon, beast and false prophet ; 
but came full fledged from their mouths, without 
any agency on their part, only their aims harmonized 
with the desires and decrees of the beasts and false 
prophets ; the destruction of the saints. So this 
class of persons naturally sprung into existence from 
the state of society created by the regime of the 
governments and the Roman church. Now, under a 
superstitious system of idolatry, represented by the 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 183 



dragon or paganism, as it has subsisted in the Roman 
and Greek churches for ages, thinking and reasoning 
men, without ever having come in contact with any- 
thing better, would avow themselves infidels and 
atheists, and would naturally employ what talents, 
learning and other forces they possessed in destroying 
a religion so detestable ; and the Catholic to them being 
the foremost in the van of all others, in aiming to de- 
stroy it they would embrace the evangelical as well. 

The frog from the mouth of the dragon is the toi- 
son for the infidels and atheists of the age who have 
already alarmed Evangelical Christendom by their 
scientific and other operations, partially undermining 
the fabric of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Persons living under despotic governments, or mon- 
archical, whose policy it is to foster and support, by 
civil and military power, the distinction of classes of 
rich and poor, — high and low, — the rulers and the 
ruled; and having come to the knowledge of the fact 
that civil and ecclesiastical freedom is the national right 
of every man, would not quietly remain in a condition 
of semi-slavery, suffering privations and hardships to 
support the pomp and power of their social masters. 
Besides, as these governments assume to be Christian 
institutions, these discontents would hate the very name 
of Christian and would only desire and watch, or make 
the opportunity, to wipe it out of existence. 

Such persons are the Socialists, Nihilists and Anarch- 
ists of Europe. The frog from the mouth of the beast 
is the toison for these characters. In connection with 
the papal establishment exists a community of persons 



184 



PATMOS. 



who are bound by solemn oath to do all in their power 
to destroy heresy from the world. Heresy compre- 
hends evangelical Christianity embracing the subjects 
of the Kingdom of Heaven. These persons are the 
Jesuits represented by the frog coming from the mouth 
of the false prophet. No classes of men have ever ap- 
peared in the world, not vitally connected with the civil 
and ecclesiastical powers, who are so deeply interested 
in the annihilation of the true religion as these persons 
are. And they are the legitimate offspring of the so- 
cial state, created and fostered by the civil and eccle- 
siastical polity of Europe. These are the forces oper- 
ating against evangelical religion in our times. The 
prediction is that at some future period they will suc- 
ceed in forming a combination of all the leaders of false 
religion throughout the world against evangelical Chris- 
tians for a final effort to destroy them. Infidelity, so- 
cialism, and Jesuitism will lead their forces to the great 
battle-field where the Almighty has so often defeated 
the enemy and preserved his people like the old battle 
ground of " Armageddon.'* 

This battle field will not be a physical one, like that, 
but final like it. These forces will carry on the strug- 
gle just as we see it going on now, with the same 
means and methods; but the subjects of the Kingdom 
of Heaven shall continue the grand work of evan- 
gelization until the frogs and kings shall disappear for- 
ever. Hence the toison " Armageddon,'' signifies the 
final battle and victory. Behold I come as a thief," 
says Christ, upon the disclosure of this vision. An 
intimation that this will close up the struggle of his 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 185 



people for self-defense against the forces of evil prior to 
His second coming. He does not say when He will 
come, nor how soon the struggle will be ended, but 
that it will be final to the realization of the announce- 
ment under the seventh trumpet. The kingdoms of 
this world are become the kingdom of our Lord and its 
Christ ; " and his glorious reign of a thousand years 
shallbegin. The final catastrophe is brought to view by 
the toison of the seventh vial poured into the air. The 
air envelops the earth with all its contents. It contains 
the active electrical forces of nature. The contents of 
the vial excited these forces into activity. There were 
sounds and thunders and lightnings and the mightiest 
earthquake ever known. These forces struck the City of 
Nations, wrecked it and it fell. And Babylon came 
before God to receive her final doom; and every island 
fled away ; and the mountains were not found. Hail- 
stones of unusual size fell upon men, which incited them 
to blaspheme God. When the contents of the vial were 
diffused through the air, a voice out the temple of 
Heaven from the throne said, It is done.*' 

Hence the working of the forces, eventuating in the 
destruction of the city of the nations, was to be the last 
act in the drama before the triumph of the Kingdom of 
Heaven. These cities " of the nations'* is a toison 
distinct from the city Babylon,'' the toison for the 
Roman Catholic hierarchy. It is, however, something 
like it, bearing a similar character, as its name indicates. 

The hierarchy was not a city of the nations, but the 
name city was given to the image made to the first 
beast in order to its identification. It indicated that it 



186 



PATMOS. 



was an ecclesiastical organization, as a city is a social 
organization. Now here is cities ' * of the nations." 
"Nations** is the toison for the various ecclesiastical 
establishments existing as hierarchies after the disso- 
lution of the great universal hierarchy, the organiza- 
tions composed of the civil and ecclesiastical depart- 
ments known as nationalized hierarchies. The **air** 
enveloping in appearance, the heaven, sun, moon, 
stars, earth, seas, mountains, islands, rivers, is the toi- 
son for the area of any forces physical, social, political^ 
moral or religious, so prevalent as to embrace the 
government, their rulers, supreme and subordinate, the 
nations, peoples, etc. 

These various influences set in operation, directly 
and indirectly by the preaching of the gospel, event- 
uating in civil revolutions, effect to break up the na- 
tionalized hierarchies and abolish them. This grand 
event is here predicted. It is still in the future. The 
effect of these various forces on the members of the 
hierarchies will be to incite them to new acts of religious 
corruption in new arrogations of their divinely appoint- 
ed institutions; resisting, by these assumptions, the 
doom that awaits their system of church and state, 
which the Almighty abhors. Thus will the govern- 
ments succeeding Christian imperial Rome have their 
constitutions annulled, and be forced to adopt a new 
regime founded on the principles of the Kingdom of 
Heaven. In the next paragraphs of th^e vision, cover- 
ing two chapters of the English version, we have a de- 
tailed explanation of many of the preceding toisons, 
as will be developed. 



LAMBDA. 



PARAGRAPH i. 

NE of the vial-angels came to John proposing to 
show him the judgment of the great harlot that 
sitteth upon many waters ; with whom the kings of the 
earth had committed fornication ; and the inhabitants of 
the earth had been made drunk with the wine of her 
fornication. We readily recognize in this description 
the city, before brought to John's view, under the 
name of Babylon, that had made all nations drink of 
the wine of the wrath of her fornication, whose fall an 
angel had predicted before the vials were poured out. 
Here the city is personified under the representation 
of a woman ; and a woman of a very vicious charac- 
ter. Asa "city** she is the toison of a religious or- 
ganization. Kings,'' are toisons for religious or 
church leaders. The "earth** is the nation, of which 
these church leaders are citizens. Inhabitants of the 
earth" are the religious community of the nations. 
To commit fornication is to have illicit intercourse, 
or practice vice between the sexes. It is the toison 
of the religious corruptions by the religious organ- 
ization practiced with the religious community, who 

(187) 




188 



PATMOS. 



were led blindly into the acceptance of false dogmas 
and idolatrous practices for the true religion. 

At this stage of the vision, the city had passed away 
but apparently, lest the toison would not be clearly 
identified so as to be recognized in history, the angel 
gives John a full and complete view of her in her late 
relations to the beast with seven heads and ten horns. 
This view is given in the wilderness, the then obscurity 
or oblivion to which she had been doomed and driven. 
The angel brings John into the presence of a beast 
carrying a woman. 

He had not had this toison before. He had seen 
the beast, and the " image to the beast ^' in intimate 
connection. Now he sees them in their intimate rela- 
tions ; and by the appearance of both, and their 
mutual acts, and what the angel tells him, he can form 
a just estimate of their respective characters. The 
beast was scarlet colored,'* which indicated its 
superiority and supremacy over all other beasts. 
**Full of the names of blasphemy," a toison for a 
usurpation of the divine prerogatives. 

The ** seven heads and ten horns " identifies it as 
the same that John saw rising out of the sea, a toi- 
son for the governments that succeeded Christian im- 
perial Rome. The woman's costume indicates her 
wealth, station, and power in her relation to the beast. 
Her position on the beast shows her authority over him. 
She rides, guides, and controls him, and he carries her 
like a beast of burden. These toisons rendered into 
language terms give us the following. The universal 
hierarchy, in the acme of her power and zenith of her 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 189 

glory, was maintained, — protected, — and aggran- 
dized, by the ten kingdoms that succeeded Christian 
imperial Rome, which she controlled absolutely in her 
own interests. As a government, she was the most 
powerful the world ever contained, as she at any time 
could command all the resources, civil and military, of 
the governments of Europe. As a religious establish- 
ment her wealth was inexhaustible, — her splendor un- 
excelled, and her influence unrivalled. The full wine 
cup mixed with poisonous and exhilarating ingredients, 
is the toison for her ideas and purposes in religion and 
government which she inculcated, and forced upon the 
belief and practice of all that were under her sway. 
Her connection and intimacy with the governments 
were unnatural and productive of incalculable evils, so- 
cial and religious. . The name on the woman's forehead 
is the toison of the moral character of the hierarchy. 
" Mystery, Babylon the great," " the mother of harlots 
and abominations of the earth." In her very constitu- 
tion, and dogmas, and religious practices, the hierarchy 
has ever been a mystery to all thoughtful people. 
The dogma of the infallibility of the pope; of the im- 
maculate conception ; of transubstantiation ; of purga- 
torial purification ; of absolution by the priesthood ; of 
the divinity of the Virgin Mary; the power of relics of the 
saints over disease, and all common evils; extreme 
unction ; with their modes of worship, their rites and 
ceremonies, are a wonder to the world of intelligent peo- 
ple; and the greatest mystery of all is the obsequious 
ness of her adherents when once enamored of her sys- 
tem, however intelligent and learned they may be. 



190 



PATMOS. 



Babylon is the exponen t of all that is morally degrading, 
and socially imperious. Such was the hierarchy, the 
mother of harlots." The example of the universal hier- 
archy was the signal for the corrupting usurpations, and 
arrogant assumptions of all the church and state estab- 
lishments of Europe. The example was set when the 
hierarchy was but a Romish hierarchy, and before it was 
merged into the universal hierarchy. Abominations of 
the earth/' The " earth is a constant toison for the 
nations of Europe organized under governments. The 
"abominations are the social evils which the hier- 
archy entailed upon the nations which she controlled. 
The woman was drunken with the blood of the saints 
and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.*' The 
hierarchy has ever from the dawn of her existence 
made it a specialty, both by edict and example, to des- 
troy heresy. She has assumed that prerogative as a di- 
vine right ; and myriads of heretics have been punished 
in every way conceivable, by the unmerciful and big- 
oted human mind of the hierarchy. St. Bartholomew's 
day is embalmed in history as a perpetual memorial of 
her bigotry and savage ferocity. 

It never can be eliminated from the historical page. 
They were heretics ; the martyrs of Jesus. John was 
overwhelmed with astonishment at this terrible vision. 
Well, says the Angel, I will tell you the mystery of the 
woman and of the beast that carrieth her. Here then 
we have an angel himself interpreting the toison of the 
vision ; predicting in terms sufficiently literal to John (and 
to us) to a correct apprehension of the facts of history. 

First : " the beast that was and is not, that ascended 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 191 

out of the bottomless pit and goeth into perdition, and 
they that dwell on the earth wonder (those whose 
names were not written in the book of life from the 
foundation of the world) when they beheld the beast 
that was and is not and yet is/' Now understand, 

Here is the mind which hath wisdom/' 

The seven heads of the beast are the seven mount- 
ains on which the woman sitteth. The woman in vis- 
ion appeared sitting on the seven heads among the ten 
horns. This is like what the woman represents sitting 
upon seven hills or mountains. The woman is a city 
personified. The city sits on seven hills. That city 
has been taken for a toison of a religious organization, 
because that locality of seven hills is the center of its 
operations. 

There is only one capital city of a great empire ex- 
isting (in John's time). Of course that is Rome, and 
that is built on seven hills. That city is the center of 
the operations of its counterpart, religious organization. 
It originated the throne. It became a twofold power, 
secular and religious, there. Then it merged itself into 
a universal, civil and ecclesiastical power or govern- 
ment there, supported by the government that suc- 
ceeded Christian imperial Rome. In vision, in this last 
form, it is called a city," there personified as a woman 
carried by the beast. 

So that the explanation of the circumstance of the 
woman sitting on the seven heads of the beast among 
the ten horns, by the city of which the woman is the 
personification, sitting on seven hills, identifies the 
counterpart of the personification of the city. 



192 



PATMOS. 



It will be in history (after John's time) a universal 
government, made up of the religious and civil ele- 
ments that shall be intimately connected with the 
Kingdom of Heaven and will persecute its subjects. 
That is the woman drunk with the blood of saints." 

There are seven kings from first to last." (In John's 
time) five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet 
come. When he cometh he must continue a short time. 

The fact that some of these kings had fallen, and 
that one existed in John's time, and that another would 
take its place, shows that these kings were successive, 
one followed another as rulers. 

They were dynastic kings or rulers, sovereigns of dif- 
ferent kinds of governments, one succeeding another 
over the same people ; and being intimately connected 
with the Kingdom of Heaven and persecuting the 
saints. They are easily identified in history. John at 
once perceived that they constituted the different dy- 
nasties of the Roman empire, for that empire alone was 
intimately connected with the Kingdom of Heaven, and 
had already passed through five forms of government, 
and was now in its sixth form. Pagan Imperial Rome. 

Pagan Imperial Rome was to be succeeded by a 
seventh form which would continue only a compara- 
tively short time ; and an eighth form should take its 
place. The beast that was and is not, as John had seen 
in vision, is this eighth form and is out of the seventh 
form. This form shall go into perdition ; or be de- 
stroyed like all the others. 

Here then is a great system of dynasties of rulers of 
one government in connection with the Kingdom of 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OP HEAVEN. 193 

Heaven, and persecuting the saints of God, represent- 
ed by the beast with eight heads; the eighth being 
identical with the seventh with different characteristics 
enough to be known as an eighth head. 

The ten horns are also ten kings or dynasties of 
rulers which in John's time had not come into exist- 
ence, but as the horns appear on one of the heads of 
the beast and therefore partake of the nature of the 
beast, so the ten dynasties receive their constitutions 
and regime from the last form of the government, and of 
course are of the same kind. These ten dynasties in 
effect constitute the eighth form of the great system of 
dynasties. Just as the ten horns constitute a distinct 
head of the beast although really only of the seventh ; 
for just as the ten horns served the beast in its aggres- 
sions, so these ten dynasties perpetuated the system of 
dynasties mentioned. ** These have one mind and shall 
give their power and strength to the beast." A toi- 
sonic way of saying that the ten kingdoms shall be of 
the nature of the government which they succeeded, 
and shall perpetuate its constitution and polity. These 
(ten kingdoms) shall make war with the Lamb and the 
Lamb shall overcome them ; for he is Lord of Lords and 
King of Kings ; and they that are with Him are called 
and chosen and faithful. The Lamb is figuratively 
representative of His subjects, or the members of the 
Kingdom of Heaven ; and **war** is the persecution 
which the ten civil governments, in connection with the 
universal hierarchy supported by them, shall inflict on 
all dissentients or heretics, who shall eventually tri- 
umph. 

13 



194 



PATMOS. 



In the proposition by the Angel to explain these 
toisons he refers to the harlot as sitting upon many- 
waters. No doubt, this taken in connection with the 
vision of the harlot sitting on the beast seemed enig- 
matical to John. The woman was sitting upon many- 
waters at this stage of the vision; and John was taken 
back in events to the period when the woman was sitting 
upon the beast. 

The " waters are peoples and multitudes and 
nations and tongues. That is, the universal hierarchy, 
which was formerly supported by the ten kingdoms or 
civil powers, is now maintained by peoples and multi- 
tudes and nations and tongues. And the way this fact 
was brought about is as follows : The ten kingdoms 
came to dislike the hierarchy; turned against it ; with- 
drew their support ; abridged its privileges ; broke up 
its institutions ; severed their connection with it ; 
deprived it of its civil prerogatives ; and reduced it to a 
simple ecclesiastical organization. John now under- 
stood the toisons well enough to read in them this 
literal description, and hence the angel gives the 
toisons. 

The ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, 
these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate 
and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with 
fire. For God has ordained that the ten kingdoms 
shall fulfill his will ; and all to agree in this matter and 
to add their dynasties to their predecessor, and con- 
tinue to be one establishment from first to last, until 
what he has predicted concerning the universal hier- 
archy shall be fulfilled. And finally the angel adds 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 195 

another explanation, " The woman which thou sawest 
is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the 
earth. " This explanation is in toisons of which John 
knew the meaning. 

The earth means the nations, comprehending the 
ten civil governments that ruled them ; kings*' are 
ecclesiastical leaders ; reigning over them'' is govern- 
ing them ; and city is the toison for an ecclesiastical 
organization. So that the woman is the great ecclesias- 
tical establishment that controls, at this stage of the 
vision, the religious leaders or ecclesiastics who belong 
to the governments that succeeded Christian Imperial 
Rome. With these predictions thus brought out by 
the explanation as premises, it is easy to find the 
reality in history. 

The woman was the Roman church. Then the 
Romish hierarchy. Then the Roman Catholic hier- 
archy. Then again the Roman Catholic church, which 
it is in our day. 

PARAGRAPH 2, 

After this explanation by the angel, which compre- 
hends all the principles of toisonic communication of 
the divine will, the prophecy proceeds again in toisons. 
It is continued from the point of communication under 
the seventh vial where the city of the nations fell. 
These cities we determined to be the various church 
and state establishments of Europe. Now the angel, 
that lightened the earth with his glory, follows the great 
city of Babylon to her final destiny as a city. 



196 



PATMOS. 



He represents her as having fallen, and become the 
habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit 
and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. The 
reason of this terrible doom is given. " All nations had 
drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication; and 
the kings of the earth had committed fornication with 
her ; and the merchants of the earth had become rich 
through the abundance of her delicacies/* After the 
full literal explanation by an angel it is comparatively 
easy to read from these toisons the prediction in literal 
terms. After the great universal hierarchy had been 
reduced to a mere ecclesiastical organization, and had 
lost her sources of national revenues, and been made 
dependent for existence and maintenance on her own 
individual resources, intellectual and moral, like all 
other church organizations, it lost its moral status in the 
estimation of the world. It became morally and re- 
ligiously like ancient Babylon as it was physically. 
That city was no longer the habitation of an intelligent, 
polite, and ambitious people, but demons occupied its 
ruins, and unclean animals and reptiles and birds made 
its ruined buildings their lairs, and dens, and nests. So 
the Roman Catholic church became characterized by 
adherents given over to every species of superstitution 
and immorality. Divine Providence had brought it 
down to this condition of degradation, because, when 
in the zenith of her power and glory, she corrupted 
the religion of the religious organizations which she 
controlled ; so that all their leaders adopted her faith 
and practice ; and forced them upon those who looked 
to them for guidance in holy things ; and in conse- 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 197 



quence of the pomp and splendor of her worship, the 
offices in her gift became sinecures eagerly sought for 
by worldly and ambitious men ; just as merchants en- 
hance their revenues by furnishing articles of luxury to 
the rich and the great. Now she is fallen, and all that 
condition of things is changed. In this religiously 
degraded state, another voice from heaven was heard 
saying : " Come out of her, my people, that ye be not 
partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her 
plagues." 

These heavenly agencies, like others pouring out the 
vials, are the spiritual managers of the forces employed 
directly and sensibly to reduce the city to ruins. Their 
assertions to John are predictions of what shall be done 
by these forces. 

With the true light of the gospel they expose the 
false glare of that corrupt organization, so that from 
being the great organized representative of the Chris- 
tian religion, held in reverential awe, for that reason, 
by the whole world, it comes to be abhorred by all civil- 
ized people ; and every evangelical preacher, coming di- 
rectly in contact with it, warns all persons who belong 
to it, and who would escape the wrath to come, to for- 
sake its communion. The reason for this course they 
give, Her sins have reached unto heaven and God 
hath remembered her iniquities.*' Then says the heav- 
enly voice to the saints : Reward her even as she re- 
warded you, and double unto her double according to 
her works. The cup which she hath fijled fill to her 
double. How much she hath glorified herself and lived 
deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her, for 



198 



PATMOS. 



she saith in her heart : I sit a queen and am no widow 
and shall see no sorrow." The history of this startling 
prediction is not yet written, but the details may be 
read in existing facts and circumstances every day aris- 
ing from the doings and sayings of that establishment. 
The sappers and miners have reached the very citadel 
of her strength. The pope is a prisoner in his own 
palace. Tracts, books, bibles, churches, he is com- 
pelled to allow to come to the very gates of the Vati- 
can, knocking for entrance. He has no power any 
more to arrest a one page tract, full of the gospel, in its 
flight over his walls, and into his secret chamber. By 
the saints, whose blood had formerly floated his com- 
merce on every sea, he is besieged in his own castle ; 
and yet he arrogates to himself the divine prerogatives, 
and proclaims himself vicegerent of God; and he yet 
assumes to be the potentate of potentates ; and by di- 
vine right the supreme sovereign of the world; and 
vainly predicts that his sway shall yet be universal. 
" I sit a queen and am no widow, and shall see no sor- 
row.*' " Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, 
death, and mourning, and famine, and she shall be ut- 
terly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who 
judgeth her.'' We have already seen how this calamity 
shall befall her. The ten horns shall hate her." The 
nations, of which her adherents are citizens, shall 
through their legislation reduce her to utter nothing- 
ness. 

Death " is the toison for deprivation of all eccle- 
siastical existence; and *'fire" represents the forces of 
annihilation. The eflects of her utter disintegration as 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 199 



a church organization are most graphically described. 
Her leaders, from small to great, when once the na- 
tions have legislated the concern out of existence shall 
bewail her, because of their own sorrowful plight of 
being a priesthood without a church. Moreover they 
will keep out of the hands of civil justice and avert a 
similar fate. So all classes and conditions of persons, 
officially connected with the establishment in any 
way, whereby they spiritually or materially benefited 
the church, or were benefited by it, who are the " mer- 
chants of the text shall mourn and bewail her, for 
no man buyeth her merchandise any more." Her 

merchandise is the toison for every thing deemed 
necessary to the maintenance of her influence, and 
her show of power, among men ; from the drops of 
holy water in the vestibules of her temples, to the con- 
secrated wafer that is the veritable flesh and blood of 
divinity; from the candle burning beside the coffined 
dead, to St. Peter's shrines rivalliag the splendor of the 
sun ; from an " Ave Maria " bead, to the ponderous 
tomes full of paid-for prayers for the repose of the souls 
of her distinguished popes, to which art, manufact- 
ures, — science, — commerce, — agriculture, — and 
legislation had been made subservient for more than 
a thousand years. 

"The ship-masters cried when they saw the smoke 
of her burning, what city is like unto this great 
city?" But this awful wail is neutralized by the voice 
of shouting of the heaven, the holy apostles, and 
preachers of the gospel; for God had avenged them 
on her. 



200 



PATMOS. 



The foremost persecutor of all persecutors is no 
more. As the mill-stone cast into the sea sinks to the 
bottom, never to rise again to its surface, so, says 
the angel suiting the action to the word, with 
violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down 
and shall be found no more at all.'* Like ancient 
Babylon at its fall, when taken by the kings of the 
east, it began to be forsaken by its people until in time 
the voice of harpers, musicians, pipers, trumpeters 
were never heard more. The mill-stones ceased grind- 
ing. Candles shown never again, and even marriages 
ceased to be celebrated. Nothing, absolutely nothing, 
was found in the ruined modern Babylon but the 
" blood of the prophets and saints and citizens." 

There were the stains of blood of martyrdom for 
ever. Is there any doubt in regard to the identifica- 
tion of this great city in the reality? Look through 
the annals of time and find an organization of any 
kind which, in inseparable conjunction with the great 
leading civil power, under whose sway providence has 
placed his people, has existed for a long period of 
time, an avowed persecutor of the saints, under the 
name of heretics, if you can, except the Roman Cath- 
olic church. 

The utter dissolution of the Roman Catholic church 
will be the harbinger of the coming glory of the 
Kingdom of Heaven. It is the only organized obstruc- 
tion in the way of free course to the dominion of the 
world. No wonder that at the mere anticipation of the 
event, the glorified saints in heaven should raise the 
shout of " Alleluia ! Salvation and glory and honor 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 201 

and power unto the Lord our God/' Thousands of 
them had suffered the most beast-like tortures at the 
hands of this bloody persecutor. The Paulicians, the 
Albigenses, the Waldenses, the Piedmontese, the 
Huguenots, the English, the Scotch, the Dutch and 
individuals without classification innumerable, had been 
forced to pass through the hell-fires kindled by this 
drunken woman, to the rest that remaineth for the 
people of God ; while during all the bloody ages she 
had made the world believe, and historians have con- 
sented to enter it on the page of church history, that 
these saints of God were heretics, and only the pro- 
moters of evil. But God hath at length given a true 
and righteous judgment on the merits of the case. The 
great harlot is condemned at his tribunal, and he hath 
avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. Again 
they shouted "Alleluia — and her smoke rose up forever 
and ever." 

In the same spirit the grand spiritual agents, who, 
just behind the veil, had managed the warfare on the 
side of the saints, the elders and beasts, worshiped 
God that sat on the throne responding Amen, alleluia." 
Let us draw still nearer that wonderful world and re- 
ceive a deeper impression of its true nature in the say- 
ings of the glorious throngs there. 

Now came a voice out of the throne saying — and 
imagine that there is breathless silence, for it is a di- 
vine voice — Praise our God all ye his servants and 
ye that fear him small and great." Then followed the 
universal shout — it was the voice of a great multitude, 
and like the voice of many waters, and as the voice 



202 



PATMOS. 



of mighty thunderings, saying: Alleluia for the Lord 
God omnipotent reigneth." The people of the earth 
thought the beast and the woman ruled the world, and 
that the saints were accursed heretics endeavoring to 
obstruct their sway. Now God reigns and the saints 
are exalted to his throne and to the dominion of the na- 
tions. 

Then comes the glad refrain, Let us be glad and 
rejoice and give honor to Him, for the marriage of the 
Lamb is come, and His bride has made herself ready.'* 
The nuptials had been delayed for more than a thou- 
sand years by the persistent interference of the harlot, 
who even claimed — and the world admitted the 
claim — that she was the chosen and truly affianced of 
the Lamb. Now the event reveals the truth. 

The Lamb was espoused at the beginning to the 
saints — the heretics of history — to her it was granted 
to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, and not in 
purple and scarlet color, nor to be decked with gold 
and precious stones, and pearls, like the woman on the 
scarlet colored beast. Don't mistake the fine linen. 
The Revelation says it is the righteousness of the 
saints, this tells you that the bride that wears it is the 
toison for the saints of God — the heretics of history — 
the martyrs of Jesus ; and let it be written : Blessed 
are they who are called into the marriage supper of the 
Lamb." 

Don't doubt the truth any longer. " These are the 
true sayings of God." Is it any wonder that John fell 
at the feet of the glorious being that narrated these 
cheering facts ? John in vision had been wandering in 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 203 

a labyrinth of mystery, regarding the ultimate outcome 
of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Now the key is disclosed, and he can traverse its 
paths without any bewilderment. The relator is only 
one of John's former friends in the flesh, his fellow-serv- 
ant — a brother that had the testimony of Jesus. At 
the word did they both together once more worship 
God. 

This is all predictive. This " testimony of Jesus 
communicated to John is the spirit of prophecy." It is 
also predictive to us. The time hastens on, when 
through the preaching of the gospel in all the world as 
a witness to all nations, public sentiment shall be radi- 
cally changed as respects the true merits of the Roman 
church, — the Romish hierarchy — the Roman Catholic 
hierarchy — the Roman Catholic church. The heretics 
shall come to be appreciated in their real character and 
relation to the Christian religion. There shall be a uni- 
versal revulsion of sentiment, feeling, and purpose, in the 
very governments themselves ; and a determination will be 
conceived and fostered to humble the imperious woman, 
and exalt the modest virgin, and the determination 
will be put in execution, and Babylon shall not only 
fall in her proud elevation as a civil power but be 
thrown down so utterly as to be merely a spot on the 
historic page made by the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. 
Then shall come the triumph of the downtrodden for 
more than a thousand years ; and a grand public re- 
union shall take place between the subjects of the 
Kingdom of Heaven and the King himself, and blessed 
is he who shall live in that era of Christianity.'' Now 



204 



PATMOS. 



are brought to John's view the agencies that will real- 
ize this prediction. It is no longer an angel nor a 
glorified saint that manages this last campaign ; like 
those who blew the trumpets, or poured out the vials ; 
but one like him who in the beginning opened the seven 
seals ; like him who walked in the midst of the golden 
candle-sticks ; the alpha is the omega. He who be- 
gun the dispensation shall personally close it. 



MU. 



PARAGRAPH i. 

fSAW Heaven opened and behold a whit^ horse, 
and he that sat upon him was called faithful and 
true, and in righteousness doth he judge and make 
war/* 

In the establishment and primary development of 
the Kingdom of Heaven, the Lamb, who was in the 
midst of the throne, personally and directly superintend- 
ed the earthly agencies. He opened the first seal, 
and at His instance, one of the four beasts (superior 
entities) in attendance on Him called " Come/' John 
saw the first Christian workers; the Apostles, their co- 
adjutors, and successors, coming to view under the 
toison of a white horse, and he that sat on him had a 
bow, and a crown was given unto him, and he went 
forth conquering and to conquer. 

The work of destroying the persecuting powers was 
entrusted to the angels who blew the trumpets, and 
poured out the vials ; so after the complete triumph of 
the saints, an angel is commissioned to seize and bind. 
Satan in the bottomless pit for a thousand years. In 
the mean time a private and unobserved work was pro- 
gressing, conducted by the saints, under the original 

(205) 



206 



PATMOS. 



superintendency of the Lamb and his immediate at- 
tendants, in promotion of the principles of the gospel ; 
or in perpetuating their existence ; and gathering sub- 
jects of the Kingdom of Heaven. This work crops out 
in the one hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed 
from the twelve tribes of Israel ; then the multitude 
which no man could number, coming up out of great 
tribulation, having washed their robes and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb ; and then again the 
one hundred and forty-four thousand having the 
Father's name written in their foreheads, who had not 
been contaminated with the corruptions of the beast 
and his image. Now that the last great work, like the 
first, is purely a religious one to be promoted by the 
preaching of the gospel, the first spiritual agencies 
come prominently to view, but under an entirely dif- 
ferent aspect. The rider on the white horse is a spirit- 
ual agent we know, for he issues to view in the vision- 
heaven. He is entirely unlike the rider on the white 
horse under the first seal, as that was a purely military 
character, making war on unrighteous principles for 
purposes of self aggrandizement. This rider makes it 
in righteousness as to both method and agents. The 
predicates employed in describing him discloses his 
identity. " His eyes were as a flame of fire.*' So his 
eyes whom John saw in the midst of the golden candle- 
sticks were the same. " On his head were many 
crowns." When John first saw him, he wore no crown. 
His head was bare. His crowns now indicate the con- 
quests he has made since that era. " He had a name 
written that no man knew but he himself." Name is 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 207 

the emblem for character. No one knew his name. 
No finite mind could comprehend his character, show- 
ing that he was more than human. ** He was clothed 
in a vesture dipped in blood.*' Like the one who 

Came from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah 
mighty to save.*' Like a warrior just from the field of 
battle, who had discomfited his enemies. So this per- 
sonage was a conqueror. His campaign was just 
ended. " His name was called the word of God." By 
this name John clearly perceives his identity, for he had 
formerly written: "In the beginning was the word and 
the word was with God and the word was God.*' He is 
Christ Jesus the Lord. 

All this description is toisonic, like the Lamb, elders, 
superior intelligences, — angels, God on the throne, 
who were toisons of the spiritual agencies engaged in 
conducting the history of the Kingdom of Heaven ; 
but the Almighty, and the Son of God, — and the an- 
gels, sustain no analogy to any beings in any other 
sphere of existence and therefore cannot be repre- 
sented by any, but appear in the vision in their own 
persons. It was fitting that the Lamb should be pre- 
sented as here described. Now that the mighty strug- 
gle with the persecuting powers was ended, for accord- 
ing to a previous toisonic prediction he was conqueror, 

these shall make war (meaning the ten horns) with 
the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, and 
they that are with him are called and chosen and faith- 
ful;'* he comes to view now not as a Lamb but a con- 
queror. But lest his identity might be mistaken, he is 
particularly described in terms that remove all doubt. 



208 



PATMOS. 



So in harmony they that were with him, in his charac- 
ter as a Lamb, are now presented as soldiers of his 
armies; and the armies in heaven followed him upon 
white horses, clothed in fine linen white and clean/* 
The fine linen white and clean determines who the 
armies are in reality. They are the superior entities 
and elders in attendance upon the Lamb, and employed 
by him in their spiritual capacity in promoting the 
Kingdom of Heaven. We now have a description of 
the kind of work these spiritual agencies will have un- 
dertaken, and the means employed, and the result. 
" And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with 
it he should smite the nations ; and he shall rule them 
with a rod of iron : and he treadeth the winepress 
of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God; and 
he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written : 
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The " sharp sword," 
like the sharp two-edged sword John saw at the begin- 
ning, is the word of truth disclosed in the gospel. The 
" nations,'* as we have repeatedly seen, represent va- 
rious Christian organizations. To "smite them" is to 
bring them all under his gospel rule. To " rule them 
with a rod of iron " — is to have them all under his abso- 
lute sway, — all are brought into perfect harmony under 
his regime. The " name written on his vesture and on 
his thigh. King of*Kingsand Lord of Lords " is the new 
character he now sustains to evangelical Christendom. 
As a conquering warrior subdues the nations and be- 
comes their supreme and only ruler, so Christ now 
is the supreme head of all Christian people of every 
name in every land. 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 209 

The kingdoms of this world have at last become the 
kingdom of our Lord and jts Christ, in the highest 
sense of the terms. This is the last grand gospel work 
before the annihilation of all false systems of social 
government and false Christian organizations. Inas- 
much as the spiritual agencies in this work are more 
conspicuous in personal presence than any heretofore 
seen in vision, their church militant co-workers we 
infer are correspondingly efficient. 

In learning, in eloquence, in zeal, in enthusiasm, in 
spiritual magnetism, in ingenuity in contriving ways of 
success, in persistent activity, in broadness of spirit 
and views, in the presumptions of faith in power with 
God, in the largeness of the scope of operations in 
Christian charity, in self-denying devotion, we grasp 
the foregoing prediction in one view. When, by the 
power of the gospel, the governments, that are the 
successors of the Christian Imperial Rome, shall have 
been so revolutionized in religious views and social 
sentiments, as to sever their connection with the Roman 
Catholic hierarchy not only, but by legislation oppose 
her pretensions, and thwart her schemes to maintain 
her universal sovereignty and reduce her organization 
to that of a simple church, by eliminating her temporal 
power, thereby placing her on the same footing with 
other Christian sects in maintaining existence, and ex- 
tending her influence and religious power, there shall 
appear, in the field of operations, new agencies along 
with the old, working according to new methods, using 
new means, new and auxiliary organizations, and new 
devices; using any force warranted by the gospel, and 

li 



210 



PATMOS. 



inspired by the Holy Spirit, moving on with eminent 
success against the forces of superstition, spiritual 
servitude, and civil despotism and tyranny and prac- 
tical skepticism and idolatry. The one aim constant 
and invariable will be to convert men into subjects of 
the Kingdom of Heaven. 

To carry out the expressed will of their great 
Leader : to preach the gospel in all the world for a wit- 
ness to all nations, in order to induce faith in him and 
the regeneration of the heart by the Holy Spirit. With 
a state of things like this it would not be a surprising 
event should these Christian workers plant their stand- 
ards on the very walls of the Vatican, and eventually 
wave their ensigns on the pinnacles of St. Peter's at 
Rome. In the year of our Lord 1870, Victor Imman- 
uel, king of Italy, by law annulled the temporal power of 
the pope, and reduced her system to a mere ecclesiasti- 
cism. A survey of the agencies now operating, which 
affect the Church of Rome directly and indirectly, and 
which sooner or later must subvert her entire establish- 
ment, aside from the regular methods originating at the 
time of the great restoration by the reformers, and per- 
petuated to the present time, bring to view the Sunday- 
school, the Evangelical Alliance, the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association, the missionary societies, bible societies, 
tract and evangelical book societies, and recently intro- 
duced in Providence, evangelistic preaching. The field 
of operations of these various agencies is not denomi- 
national but cosmopolitan, and what is singular and 
most admirable, showing the direct presence of the 
Lord managing all these forces so that they contribute 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 211 

to one grand end, is the feature of strength of unity in 
variety. Although composed of individuals belonging 
to every evangelical sect in Christendom, there is but one 
Sunday-school, one Evangelical Alliance, one Young 
Men^s Christian Association, one bible society, virtually 
one tract society, and one missionary work, and the evan- 
gelists are out of all denominations weaving their threads 
of gold through all the warp of evangelistic work. 
The white horse in heaven is seen in our times, whose 
rider is "faithful and true,'' and who "judges and 
makes war in righteousness." His armies are the 
cavalry of heaven ; and in due time the world will 
crown him King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Now 
the effect of this kind of work on what is left of the 
beast and false prophet is briefly stated. 

I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried with 
a loud voice saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst 
of heaven : " Come and gather yourselves together unto 
the supper of the great God, that ye may eat the flesh 
of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of 
mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that 
sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free, bond, 
both small and great, and I saw the beast, and the 
kings of the earth, and their armies gathered together 
to make war against him that sat on the horse and 
against his army." 

These toisons are in part a repetition and continua- 
tion of those under the sixth vial. 

There the effect of this vial poured out on the 
Euphrates was to dry it up and thus prepare the way 
of the kings of the east in their attack on Babylon. 



212 



PATMOS. 



Then appear the unclean spirits like frogs, the spirits of 
demons, working miracles going forth unto the kings 
of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to 
the battle of that great day of God Almighty ; at Ar- 
mageddon. Here we have the actual toisonic gathering 
to the battle. The kings of the east represent the 
Christian agencies already detailed. As soon as the 
way was open for their operations, the socialists, scien- 
tists, and Jesuits began their neutralizing work. This 
angel standing in the sun is the spiritual agent detailed 
to manage the destruction of the old persecuting powers. 
He has supervision of the battle-field. He stands in 
the sun. The sun " is the toison of the supreme 
ruler of some civil government that has been brought 
under the control of gospel principles, and is favorable 
to evangelical work. The heaven is the government 
itself. The fowls that fly in the midst of heaven," 
belonging to the animal sphere, is a toison for civilians 
under the government. The angeFs position in the 
sun shows the intimate connection between the su- 
preme ruler and the Christian workers under the 
spiritual management of the angel. The event will be, 
that the citizens of the government will become deeply 
interested in the struggle between the evangelical 
workers and the materialists, and anarchists, and Jesuits, 
all combined by common consent against them. 

Kings " are leaders of the Roman church. " Cap- 
tains are also an inferior order of leaders; and 
" mighty men are distinguished members. Horses " 
represent civilians in sympathy with the church and 
their " riders are a class that the civilians support, as 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 213 

the brotherhoods. "All, both bond and free, small 
and great include the laity in general. The ** flesh " 
of these individuals is all that will be left of them. 
They are dead and the spirit has taken its exit. That 
is : they have lost their church connection because 
their church is destroyed ; and they have no recourse 
but to become merely citizens of the state. *^ Flesh " 
by analogy stands for the mental deportment of the 
individual comprehending the social and intellectual 
man. This is predictive. As the grand contest waxes 
hotter between the evangelicals and the infidels and 
idolaters, the members of the Roman church will by 
force of truth be driven out of it and mix up with 
general society. The heart is still kept before us be- 
cause he is operating through his frog," and therefore 
is assumed still to be in existence. Nothing is said 
about the dragon here, but he is presumed to be present 
in his " frog," managing by proxy. 

We know what the beast stands for, the governments 
under the old Christian imperial constitution. The 
"kings of the earth " are the leaders of the Roman 
church, living under these governments. Their armies 
are the devilish spirits, the Jesuits. The kings and the 
spirits constitute the false prophets, or in other words, 
the leaders from priest to pope, in connection with the 
Jesuits, constitute the Roman church as an ecclesiastical 
system. 

The grand finale of the struggle will be : the " beast 
and the false prophet were taken and both cast alive 
into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." We are 
not left in doubt as to the identity of the false prophet. 



214 



PATMOS. 



He is mentioned only once before this time, where an 
unclean spirit comes out of his mouth. 

He appears in another character, however, to which 
his present predicates refer us. This other character 
wrought miracles in the presence of the beast. He 
made fire come down from heaven in the sight of men, 
and induced them to make an image to the first beast, 
to which he gave life, whose mark men received. Here 
is a reference to these circumstances which identify 
the false prophet. He, the false prophet, was the one 
that wrought miracles before the beast by which he 
deceived them that had received the mark of the beast 
and worshiped his image. This character was the beast 
with two horns. 

The reason he is characterized as a false prophet, is, 
now he is no longer a beast, and has only reverted to 
his original status before he became a beast. The toi- 
sons tell us he was in the beginning the Roman church ; 
then the Romish hierarchy, or a civil and ecclesiastical 
government ; then the image of the beast, or the Ro- 
man universal hierarchy ; then losing his temporal 
power he reverted to the Roman church again, and 
here is called the false prophet in contradistinction to 
the true prophet — the Kingdom of Heaven. The 
prediction is remarkable. 

The demon spirits, from the mouths of the dragon, 
the beast, and the false prophet, the foster-parents of 
intelligent persons, without regard to social or eccle- 
siastical connections, find a theater of operations where 
they can successfully, and with little restraint, under- 
mine the evangelical religion. That is in a country and 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 215 

under a government where the extreme of toleration 
will be allowed them. Of course these governments, 
or this government cannot be a successor of Christian 
Imperial Rome as regards its fundamental constitution, 
polity, — or policy. Its constitution was that of an 
absolute monarchy, in both church and state, and its 
policy was not to tolerate any principles, — or asso- 
ciations to promote them, — that have any tendency 
or aim to subvert either church or state ; for to subvert 
either would destroy the constitution. Materialism 
has that tendency ; socialism or anarchism has that 
aim; and Jesuitism has for the main object of its exist- 
ence to make the church of Rome supreme in both 
church and state, which would annihilate all govern- 
ments except the papacy. Materialism, as a system 
of philosophical speculation, might be tolerated in any 
country ; but anarchism and Jesuitism would not be 
tolerated in any country in Europe. They all are tol- 
erated in the United States, where they are allowed 
the utmost freedom in the public expression and pro- 
motion of their sentiments. Again : the toison of the 
angel standing in the sua, the conductor of the great 
battle of Armageddon, shows that the evangelical relig- 
ion, the originator and promoter of free civil institu- 
tions, will be intimately connected, not by organic law 
or by amicable league, but by national affinity with 
the supreme rulers, or dynasty of a great government. 
That government, by constitution and polity, will be in 
deep natural sympathy with the evangelical religion, and 
will encourage it in its struggle with the forces of infidel- 
ity, idolatry and anarchisms, by a generous protection of 



216 



PATMOS. 



it by legislation, if necessary, in its work. No Euro- 
pean state will do this ; but that is the very genius of 
the American polity; for it is the natural offspring of 
the evangelical religion, and will protect its parent, and 
thereby itself, at all hazards. The sun therefore 
represents the American dynasty. The heaven," in 
which the fowls fly that are invited to the great supper 
of God, the United States government. At this very 
date, 1890, the country of the United States affords the 
largest, the freest, the most promising field of opera- 
tions for the agents of materialism, anarchism and 
Jesuitism, in the world. Materialism has already 
shaken our evangelical temple to its very foundation. 
There has been an alarming defection from our ranks 
to this form of skepticism for years past. The Bible, 
the great charter of both our civil and religious free- 
dom, has been successfully attacked in the belief and 
sentiments of thousands of evangelicals, and its divine 
authority lowered to the plane of human. This aspect 
is exceedingly grateful to anarchism, and Jesuitism, as 
well as materialism. Of late materialism has met a 
master in substantialism and the campaign is to be 
hereafter " fought out on that line.'* This is no mean 
struggle. The philosophical literature of the nation is 
founded on the dicta of materialism. 

It has fixed its throne at the very foundations of lear- 
ning, both collegiate and priftiary, so that, unless vanquish- 
ed, the time is not far distant when we shall be a nation 
of infidels. Nothing could please the anarchists and 
Jesuits better. That would be delicious carrion forthem. 

Now the grand work before the evangelical religion 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 217 

is to eliminate materialism from our school literature. 
When public sentiment shall have been won over by 
the substantial philosophy, the only successful antagon- 
ist of materialism in the field, can not any one foresee 
that the legislatures of the nation will be involved in the 
struggle ? The enactments which have placed in our 
literaryinstitutionsmaterialistic literature will be repeal- 
ed, and that which is founded on the facts of science 
will be sanctioned by public law; so that the frog from 
the mouth of the dragon, the representative of all the 
fighting forces remaining of the old Pagan persecuting 
dynasties, will be killed. The status of socialism, or in 
other words, anarchism, is this : Men, who by the force 
of the policy maintained for centuries by the govern- 
ments that have succeeded Christian Imperial Rome 
have come to inherit a deteriorated moral nature and 
influenced by a low order of social sentiments, have 
been struggling for a half century past to pull down 
every thing above them and relegate it to their own 
plans. Anarchy is their watchword, for in the general 
wreck of society, and sccamble for treasure-trove, there 
will be an equal chance among all men. They have 
found that all their efforts to throw the social wheel off 
its balance in Europe are unavailing. Monarchical 
governments are too strong for them ; and the great ex- 
ponent of free government, France, is too jealous for 
them. They have been making their way, and are still 
marching in crowds to our country. The events con- 
nected with some of our courts of law this very year 
have developed the animus of these men, their number, 
their aims, and their methods of work. 



218 



PATMOS. 



Nor is anarchism confined to only a few individuals. 
The millions of foreigners, including their offspring, 
with few exceptions, from every country under heaven, 
among us, and crowding to our shores, are in a moral 
and social state, both as regards the kind and stage of 
development, unless they are decided Roman Cath- 
olics, to readily embrace anarchism when presented in 
a practical form. 

None of them want the evangelical religion ; none 
want our free institutions; all want unlimited license to 
follow the bent of their own selfish notions ; none of 
them appreciate the relation of a just and strong gov- 
ernment to the happiness of the individual. It will 
require a century, if not more, to educate them, pro- 
vided they will receive our kind of education, into any 
practical attachment of our kind, or of any kind of 
good government. This foreign element in our pop- 
ulation has already grown into unwieldly proportions. 
The most abstruse social problem that presents itself 
to our government and our Christianity, is how to 
assimilate this foreign populatk>n to the native born, so 
as to form a homogeneous mass under our polity. But 
sooner or later we have the divine assurance that it 
will be done, so that this last array of the beast, sent 
into the field, will eventually disappear. 

Jesuitism has been an important factor in the work- 
ing of church and state establishments for centuries. 
As a corporate system, within but distinct from the 
papacy, in all its forms hierarchical and ecclesiastical, 
it has ever had two aims, one to control, while promot- 
ing the interest of, the papacy ; the other to shape the 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 219 

policy of the nations that tolerate its existence, and 
make them subservient to the Roman church. In it 
is to be found the wisdom, the learning, the diplomatic 
sagacity, the self-denying devotion, the Romish piety, 
the zeal, and the enterprise of the whole Catholic 
world. 

It only wants the leadership and the pecuniary re- 
sources to be supreme master. 

It has not always been so essential to the existence 
and propagandism of the Romish church as it is now. 
Deprived of its sources of revenue among the nations, 
where it subsists ; and of its temporal power ; in 
direct antagonism to the spirit of the century ; it can 
scarcely cope with the centaur of forces besieging it 
on every hand to destroy it. It must rely upon its own 
forces, religious, intellectual and strategical to make 
any progress as a system, or even to maintain the 
status in which it was left by the Italian revolution. 
In 1773 the pope himself, encouraged by the civil 
powers, suppressed the order, because of its rapid strides 
towards the supremacy of the church. In 1886, the 
pope restores the order to its former plenitude of 
privileges and power, as the only arm competent to 
save the papacy from disintegration, even though 
Jesuitism became its master; so that from this time 
the great battle with the false prophet will be fought 
with Jesuitism. But Jesuitism has reappeared too late 
in the day to save the papacy. The century cannot 
be rolled back to the line of darkness when the Roman 
church had many of the nations, with their institutions, 



220 



PATMOS. 



well in hand ; and was easily shaping their destinies. 
The light of the gospel, of science, of liberal states- 
manship, have risen too high towards the zenith of their 
glory, for which they have been struggling for the last 
centennial age, to be even momentarily obscured by 
the mere floating cloud of Jesuitism. But Jesuitism 
does not think so; and hence the struggle must go on 
until the great anaconda, of civil and religious forces 
of Christendom, shall enfold it and crush it ; and Jesuitism 
as a system shall be relegated, by legislation, to 1773. 
Will the American dynasty be the power to aid in ac- 
complishing this final work ? 

" The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet 
that wrought miracles before him with which he de- 
ceived them that had received the mark of the beast 
and them that worshiped his images, these both were 
cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.'* 
These toisons predict the doom of the persecuting 
powers as a civil and ecclesiastical organization. It 
is utter annihilation ; as a lake of fire burning with 
brimstone is the standing emblem in the Scriptures of 
that doom. 

After they disappear from the theater of politics and 
rehgion, their former adherents surviving as individuals, 
will be convinced of their errors and will be assim- 
ilated to the dominant order of things in politics and 
religion, according to the following toison: **The 
remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon 
the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth ; 
and all the fowls were filled with their flesh ; or in 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 221 

language-terms : The members of the old dynasty 
and Roman church, the systems surviving are con- 
vinced by the truth of Christ, of their errors, and 
converted from their adherence and attachment to 
them, and become identified with the citizens of the 
dominant government, who are, as we have seen, repre- 
sented by the toison " the fowls of heaven/* 



NU. 



PARAGRAPH i. 

J|T N the battle of Armageddon mention is not made 
^ of the dragon and only of the beast, and the 
false prophet. 

The reason occurs to us when we look back at the 
relation of these toisons, the one to the other. 

The dragon, when the beast appeared, gave him his 
power, his seat, and great authority/' Previously we 
learn that when the dragon was cast out of the heaven 
of the vision-earth, he went down into the earth and 
his angels with him ; and also he went down to the sea, 
in great wrath. He there persecuted the woman that 
bore the male child. After she fled into the wilder- 
ness, he made war with the remnants of her seed. 

The account in language-terms is the following: 
When paganism as a system of religion was super- 
seded in the Roman empire by the Christian religion, 
it did not cease to exist ; as such it continued its opera- 
tions in the Roman nation and people. It endeavored 
to break up the various Christian societies, by associat- 
ing its membership with their members, corrupting 
their practices and thereby bringing them all under its 
control, alienating them from Christian Imperial Rome, 
(222) 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 223 

in order to neutralize that new system, and prepare the 
way to regain its former domination. When Constan- 
stantine assumed the headship of both church and 
state, he centralized the Christian church in one great 
organization, thereby blotting out all the minor or- 
ganizations as independent societies. This efifectually 
checkmated the schemes of paganism for the dominion 
of the world. Then after the woman had disappeared 
in the wilderness, paganism took a new tack ; that was 
to excite Christian Imperial Rome against all dissen- 
tients from the church and state order, and who also 
favored the independent existence of the simple Chris- 
tian societies. In this stratagem it succeeded but too 
well. 

In this way persecution was first inaugurated by 
Constantine and promoted by his successors ; and it 
was not many years before paganism and Christian 
Rome came into a closer union and affiliated in many 
other respects, so that the former was gradually ab- 
sorbed by the latter, and disappeared as an organized 
system. It was still that old serpent, the Devil and 
Satan." It gave the beast its power, its seat and 
great authority." That is: the church and state system 
was in spirit pagan, and in organization Christian. 
Hence when the beast was destroyed paganism still 
survived. Hence the frog coming from his mouth. 

Paganism, at the battle of Armageddon, was not at- 
tackable, because not an organization, and therefore 
is not mentioned as a factor. But when its body, the 
beast, and its image, or the last successor of Christian 
Imperial Rome and the Roman church were defunct, 



224 



PATMOS. 



paganism had no longer a foothold for its operations, 
hence we have the following thrilling account of its 
destiny : " I saw an angel come down from heaven 
having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain 
in his hand ; and he laid hold on the dragon, that old 
serpent which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a 
thousand years ; and cast him into the bottomless pit ; 
and shut him up, and set a seal upon him that he should 
deceive the nations no more till the thousand years 
should be fulfilled ; after that he must be loosed a 
Httle." 

This angel comes down from the vision-heaven, and 
hence is a spiritual agent to effect the imprisonment 
of the dragon and keep him in prison. 

The " bottomless pit " has been mentioned twice be- 
fore this. 

A star fell from heaven having a key. He opened 
the bottomless pit, and thence issued smoke and locusts 
out of the smoke. It represents the very lowest grade 
of human society morally, and socially ; as, in that re- 
ference, it is the toison for the origin of the followers 
of Mohammed. Again : it was said that the beast, in 
his ten-horned state, came from the bottomless pit; and 
so the barbarian tribes, his counterpart, that originated 
the ten kingdoms, sprung from the most degraded of 
mankind morally and socially. " The nations has re- 
peatedly been brought to view as organized Christian 
societies. Hence the prediction is : that the preach- 
ing of the gospel shall continue, until the spirit, that 
was in the persecuting powers, and that converted the 
Christian societies into the system of church and state; 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 22;j 

and subsequently formed the Roman universal hier- 
archy ; and shaped their poHcy to persecute heretics ; 
shall be confined to the lowest and most degraded 
strata, morally, of human society; and be kept there, 
and be allowed no opportunity, nor the power, to or- 
ganize a system of persecution or opposition to the 
Kingdom of Heaven, for a period — (named) — of a 
thousandyears. We have a chronological period named 
as a toison twice ; once when the woman was to re- 
main in the wilderness a thousand two hundred and 
three score days ; and where the beast was to continue 
his blasphemies forty-two months. 

This period corresponds to the time and times and 
a-half time in Daniel which when translated into chron- 
ological terms means, a year two years and a-half 
year ; or twelve hundred and sixty days ; and which is 
generally held to be one thousand two hundred and 
sixty years. The woman was to continue in the wilder- 
ness during the career of blasphemy by the beast, or 
in language terms : The independent Christian socie- 
ties were to be absorbed and lost to public view, dur- 
ing the domination of the church and state power over 
Christendom. 

We need not hold that the toison indicates a definite 
number of years, but a period embracing the continued 
existence of the Roman government, which, from the 
time that the government was founded in Italy, as a 
Trojan colony, to the subversion of the Western empire 
in 476 A. D. was 1260, or about that number of years. 
So the Eastern Roman Empire, from the era of Con- 
stantine the Great to its overthrow by Mohammed IL, 

15 



226 



PATMOS. 



continued an existence about the same length of time. 
Again: the ten kingdoms that succeeded the Old Ro- 
man empire until the French revolution, continued 
about the same period. Once more : from the time 
the Christian societies were absorbed into the church 
and state establishment, under Constantine, to the date 
of their new organization in Luther's time, the period 
was about 1260 years; so that the toison of 1260 days 
is for a period in history embracing the rise, progress 
and extinction of the civil and ecclesiastical organiza- 
tions that were intimately connected with the Kingdom 
of Heaven; which was one of about 1260 years. 

Here, now, we have a toison of 360,000 days. Are 
we to conclude from the foregoing premises that it em- 
braces a period of time of 360,000 years ; or that it is 
for a period of the continuation of the exclusive domi- 
nation of the Kingdom of Heaven in the world, in 
comparison with the period of duration of the perse- 
cuting and obstructing powers? The ages of the 
human dynasties lasted a period necessary to their rise 
progress and disintegration. So the Kingdom of 
Heaven will continue an incomparably longer period, 
during which the spirit of organized opposition shall be 
held in abeyance ; at the end of that period it shall 
gain a temporary ascendency. 

PARAGRAPH 2. 

We have now reached a new era of the Kingdom of 
Heaven. 

Through the simple preaching of the gospel ; op- 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, 22? 



posed by all the forces of wicked human nature, wielded 
by the best powers of human intellect, developed and 
cultivated to the utmost limit of its capacity ; through 
civil and ecclesiastical organizations the most powerful 
and unscrupulous that ever existed, the Kingdom of 
Heaven has made its way to the dominion of the world. 
The kingdoms of the world have become the kingdoms 
of our Lord and of its Christ. 

John now sees thrones and persons sitting on them, 
and judgment was given unto them. Thrones'' are 
emblems of sovereign power and domination in civil 
life. They are hence toisons for positions of authority 
and influence in the religious world. Those that occu- 
pied them had gained them by supreme efforts, and the 
question of title came up for decision, and judgment 
was given to them. The prediction is that the entire 
world will decide unanimously that the leaders of the 
evangelical religion are entitled to control mankind 
through the truths of the gospel ; and the prediction is 
equivalent to the historical event of their mastery of 
mankind. John now sees two classes of souls; the 
one that had been beheaded for the witness of Jesus 
and the word of God; and the other which had not 
worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had re- 
ceived his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands. 
He had seen them also before this time ; the former 
under the altar in the vision-heaven, crying to be 
avenged on their murderers. The latter standing on 
Mount Zion with the Lamb, having his Father's name 
written in their foreheads. They have come to life 
again, and are to reign with Christ a thousand years. 



228 



PATMOS. 



These are toisons and representatives. Not as souls, 
but as persons made up of soul and body, as living 
persons. They are the toisons for which counterpart 
realities are to be found. 

The souls as seen under the altar, and standing on 
Mount Zion were toisons of the glorified martyrs in the 
real heaven, and as such were interested in the de- 
struction of the persecuting powers. What direct 
agency they had in bringing about this event is not 
disclosed. Now we have them in the body as kings 
and rulers. They are toisons, therefore, of classes of 
leaders of the Kingdom of Heaven, in character, devo- 
tion and efficiency analogous to the martyrs. To reign 
with Christ is to be associated with him under his 
leadership in extending and consolidating the Kingdom 
during its unobstructed domination among men. The 
" rest of the dead who lived not again until the thou- 
sand years were finished, are not mentioned any where 
only in connection with the great battle of Armag- 
eddon. The kings, captains and mighty men, horses 
and their riders, whose flesh the fowls of heaven ate. 
They there are toisons of leaders and distinguished per- 
sons following the false prophet, and also attaches of the 
beast ; or in language-terms, the Roman church and 
adherents of the Roman dynasty, and those who, when 
those organizations disappeared, were brought to pro- 
fess the evangelical religion. They were not to live 
again. Their counterparts were not to reappear again, 
as an organized power against the Kingdom of 
Heaven until the thousand years were ended. As 
the devil would then reappear, so these characters 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, 229 

(not persons) would reappear under his leadership, as 
we shall see. 

" This is the first resurrection." This is also toisonic 
and has its counterpart reaHty. It is in explanation of 
nothing by the revelation, and therefore is not literal 
prediction. 

The reappearance of men and women at the dawn 
of the millennial period, analogous to the martyrs, will 
be analogous to the resurrection from the dead. It is 
called a first resurrection in contradistinction to the 
second resurrection of the dragon and his followers, 
analogously to reappear at the close of the millennial 
period. Hence the significant toisonic beatitude that 
follows : Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the 
first resurrection ; on such the second death hath no 
power ; but they shall be priests unto God and of 
Christ ; and shall reign with him a thousand years.'* 
The second death implies a first death. 

Formerly their toisons, the martyrs, had been be- 
headed ; that was their first death ; they were now be- 
yond the possibility of a second death like that. A 
" second death would have no power over them. But 
there would be another death, a second death to 
those of the second resurrection, like the first death 
that befell their toisons. The entire prediction is the 
following : — 

After the universal judgment of Christendom in favor 
of the evangelical leaders, as against those of the old 
hierarchies and opposing ecclesiastic^ms, there will 
every w^here be found Christian workers in character, 
in every respect, like the old martyrs, the apostles, 



230 



PATMOS. 



their helpers, and their followers, whose aim it was to 
preach the gospel to every creature under heaven, with 
a faith that promised assurance of ultimate success. 

This will be the aim of the workers at the beginning 
of the millennium. Every land will be accessible to 
their operations; and in the language of the old 
prophets nations shall be borne in a day.'' The 
progress of the Kingdom of Heaven will remind man- 
kind of the scene in apostolic times, and as the mar- 
tyrs and their coadjutors in three hundred years 
were masters of the Roman empire, and completely 
dethroned paganism, so these workers shall bring all 
the idolatrous world to accept Christianity as its re- 
ligion. 

It will be seen by the progress of the toisonic events, 
that for more than twelve hundred years the Kingdom 
of Heaven has been struggling, not for the dominion 
of the world, but for mere existence, against the hier- 
archies and ecclesiasticisms under the Christian name. 
Having survived the contest and destroyed its ene- 
mies, it now acts on the offensive, as at the beginning, 
aiming for the subjugation of the entire world of man- 
kind. To it there is no second death ; no second en- 
slavement of it by worldly forces ; no forced suppres- 
sion of its natural organization ; no corruption of its 
doctrines nor perversion of its ordinances, and no per- 
secution of its subjects under the name of heretics, 
but, for a long period of duration, its gospel shall 
have free course, run and be glorified," until the 
knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as 
waters cover the sea/* At the close of this grand 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 231 

period the spirit of paganism, Christian-idolatry, infi- 
delity, with all its attendant vices shall reappear, and a 
great apostacy shall eventuate threatening to utterly 
destroy the Kingdom of Heaven. Then shall occur 
the second death of its foes, according to the toisons, 
as follows : ^* And when the thousand years are ex- 
pired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and 
shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the 
four quarters of the earth ; — Gog and Magog, to gather 
them together to battle, the number of which is as the 
sound of the sea ; and they went up on the breadth of 
the earth; and compassed the camp of the saints about, 
and the beloved city ; and fire came down from God 
out of heaven and devoured them, — and the devil that 
deceived thenl was cast into the lake of fire and brim- 
stone, where the beast and false prophet are, and shall 
be tormented day and night forever and ever." 

" Nations still represent organized Christian socie- 
ties, which include the subjects of the Kingdom of 
Heaven. But these societies are not centralized. 
They exist in independency under various names or 
denominations. The " earth still represents organ- 
ized nations. " Four quarters comprehend all nations 
of the world. Gog and Magog are illustrative ; and 
their adaptedness to explain the toison quarters of the 
earth,*' may be learned from the Prophet Ezekiel. 

Magog was the native country of Gog, the chief 
prince of Meshech and Tubal. He was the head of a 
part of the armed forces in league against the Israelites, 
and is mentioned for them all. Ezekiel represents these 
forces, gathered from different sections of country 



232 



PATMOS. 



to fight against the Israelites ; but before the onset 
they were checked in their schemes and turned back to 
their own countries. So Satan, hke Gog, goes out to 
gather an army to destroy the camp of the saints. 
Vast multitudes rally under his ensigns ; or in lan- 
guage terms, there will be a great defection from the 
Christian religion all over the world. 

They will be organized under leaders whose object- 
ive is the subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Their plan is to wile them into their apostacy if pos- 
sible, if not, to destroy them. To '*go upon the 
breadths of the earth and to compass the saints about/' 
is to press true believers to abjure their religion in all 
parts of the world, at a given signal on a set time. The 
"beloved city*' is the Kingdom of Heaven as a whole 
in organized societies. 

To be destroyed by fire from heaven, is to be di- 
rectly annihilated by the Lord Jesus Christ ; analogous 
to being killed by a thunderbolt. Whereupon the 
spirit of evil is consigned to everlasting oblivion ; so 
that there can be no further organized opposition to 
the Kingdom of Heaven forever. The prediction, as 
given in the toison, corresponds to what we have in 
language prophecies elsewhere. Paul writes to the 
Thessalonians, '*To you who are troubled, rest with us, 
when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, 
with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance 
on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with 
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord 
and from the glory of His power; when He shall come 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 233 

to be glorified in His saints, and be admired by all them 
that believe in that day/' This is a literal passage and 
needs no explanation. Further Paul says : Let no 
man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not 
come except there come a falling away first, and that 
man of sin be revealed the son of perdition, and then 
shall that wicked (one) be revealed, whom the Lord 
shall consume with the spirit of His mouth and shall 
destroy with the brightness of His coming/' John says, 
as introductory to the Revelation, taking the last great 
event in the history of the Kingdom of Heaven, which 
is the objective of the entire vision: "Behold he cometh 
with clouds, and every eye shall see Him ; and they 
also which pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth 
shall wail because of him." We have a literal descrip- 
tion of the characters that are to be destroyed at this 
coming. Paul says, Let no man deceive you by any 
means (in regard to the fact of Christ's having come 
the second time) for He will not come until there come 
a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the 
son of perdition, who appeareth, and exalteth himself 
above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so 
that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing 
himself that he is God, and now ye know what with- 
holdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the 
mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who 
now hindereth will hinder, until he be taken out of the 
way ; and then shall that wicked be revealed whom 
the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, 
and with the brightness of His coming; whose coming 
is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs, 



234 



PATMOS. 



and by lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of 
unrighteousnees in them that perish, because they re- 
ceived not the love of the truth that they might be 
saved ; and for this cause God shall send them strong 
delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they might 
all be damned, who believed not the truth but had 
pleasure in unrighteousness." We have here some- 
thing brought to our notice by different appellations 
which requires to be analyzed. 

**The man of sin.'' This is not a name and hence it 
is a descriptive. A head of gold is a head composed 
entirely of gold. A man of sin is a character that is 
radically and thoroughly sinful in nature and acts ; 
there is nothing good about it. " The man of sin is 

the son of perdition." A son of man is entirely a 
human being. A son of God is entirely a divine being. 
So a son of perdition is one that is irredeemably lost in 
the Scripture sense of that term ; like Judas, who with 
all the light of Christ's teaching, and works, turned 
against Him and betrayed Him, thereby rendering his 
salvation hopeless ; so the character in question, with 
all the light of he^enly truth, will turn againt Christ 
in such a way as to render His destruction absolutely 
certain. It will be at once inferred from these premises 
that something is here personified under the name of 

man of sin " and " son of perdition." Again that 
something is further described by the phrase mystery 
of iniquity." Mystery among the Greeks in connec- 
tion with religion was used in a technical sense. It was 
a name given to religious rites because they were un- 
known to the worshipers, and a secret with the priest, 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 235 

as " the mysteries of Ceres." The word iniquity 
also has a technical meaning; without law"; standing 
for that which regards no law as a guide or a restraint 
of the will in action. Hence the mystery of iniquity " 
is a character that promotes religious rites and dogmas 
which are founded upon no divine law, and are a pro- 
found secret to the worshipers. 

Paul also calls this something " that wicked/' Then 
shall that wicked be revealed. The word " wicked in 
the Greek is the same as iniquity." That lawless 
one.'' That religious character that regards no divine 
law. We have also the career of this character given 
after it shall have been fully developed, as that man 
of sin be revealed." Revealed " suggests that this 
man of sin will operate on the world a long time with- 
out disclosing his true character, which, when finally 
discovered it will usurp the prerogatives of Deity and 
install itself in the sanctuary of the Most High, and re- 
ceive homage and divine worship as God from human 
beings. When he is disclosed, he will imitate Satan 
himself in his operations among men, deceiving them 
by pretentious powers, supernatural signs, and false 
miracles ; and they who turn away from the clear hght 
of the gospel and apostatizing from Christ, follow him, 
shall be abandoned by the Holy Spirit, and be under 
strong delusion that they should believe a lie and be 
lost. 

Paul says Christ shall not come until there be a " fall- 
ing away " first. Falling away " is the same as the 
well known word in connection with Christianity : ap- 
ostacy/* which is the name of the rise and development 



236 



PATMOS. 



of the mystery of iniquity," or system of lawless re- 
ligion, including its dogmas and adherents. 

These adherents will not have been drawn from the 
world, but from Christianity. Like Judas, they will 
turn against Christ and follow the leader of the mys- 
tery of iniquity. They will " fall away " from Christ. 
This falling away " shall continue from century to 
century until it shall culminate in the usurpation of the 
divine prerogatives, and an attempt to destroy the 
Kingdom of Heaven and establish the mystery of in- 
iquity upon its ruins. The man of sin is finally uncov- 
ered ; the attempt is made to install their leading char- 
acter in the divine sanctum ; as Paul says, Who 
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called 
God, or that is worshiped ; so that he as God, sitteth 
in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.'* 
Paul says that this lawless system of religion was al- 
ready at work in his time. John informs us who the par- 
ties were that were originating it. Little children it is 
the last time, and as ye have heard that anti-Christ shall 
come, even now there are many anti-Christs." These 
anti-Christs are Christ-opposers. ''They went out 
from us because they were not of us ; for if they had 
been of us they would have continued with us." They 
were liars. ''Who is a liar but he that denieth that 
Jesus is the Christ." Their wickedness consisted in 
denying the Father and the Son. " He is anti-Christ 
that denieth the Father and the Son. Whoso denieth 
the Son the same hath not the Father." They also 
denied that Christ had come in a human form. " Every 
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 237 

the flesh, is not of God, and this is that spirit of anti- 
Christ whereof ye have heard it should come, and even 
now already is it in the world/' From this analysis of 
Paul's man of sin, we have brought to view a system of 
religion, existing almost coeval with Christianity, whose 
dogma is: Christ has not appeared in, a human form, 
thereby denying the Scripture fact of the Father and the 
Son as an article of faith. Its adherents are apostates 
from Christ. In practice they oppose Christ as the Son 
of God. In moral character they are of the world ; 
repudiate Christian experience, and the fruits of the 
Holy Spirit. In propagating their religion they are 
liars and deceivers. Their system is not founded upon 
any divine law. They profess to be Christian and yet 
deny Christ; showing that their religion is incompre- 
hensible by themselves. 

They will have attempted at different periods during 
the history of Christianity to gain the ascendancy, and 
carry out their schemes, but will as often have failed. 
Paul says God will hold it in abeyance until the time 
comes for its exposure. This is that wicked whom the 
Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth and 
destroy with the brightness of His coming. These are 
the apostles of whom Paul writes. When the Lord 
Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with His mighty 
angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that 
know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlast- 
ing destruction from the presence of the Lord and 
from the glory of His power." They are the counter- 
part of the toison. " They went up on the breadth of 



238 



PATM08# 



the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, 
and the beloved city, and fire came down out of heaven 
and devoured them ; and the event is predicted in the 
words of John's introduction: Behold He cometh and 
every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced 
Him, and all Kingdoms of the earth shall wail because 
of Him/' Here also are the second resurrection and 
the second death. 

The toisonic first resurrection takes place at the be- 
ginning of the millennium ; and the second resurrection 
at its close. The character of the millennial period is 
to be inferred from the two. Its dawn is ushered in by 
the disappearance of all organized opposition to the 
Kingdom of Heaven, when there shall appear, to pro- 
mote its interests and extend its sway, a class of Chris- 
tian workers and leaders possessing the spirit and char- 
acter of the old martyrs. Pentacostal times and scenes 
shall again be inaugurated on a grander scale than the 
original under Peter. The gospel shall be preached, 
not only in the countries covering the territory of the 
old Roman empire, but in every country under heaven. 
Millions of people shall become the real subjects of the 
Kingdom of Heaven by converting grace. Gospel 
principles shall have such a strong hold on the con- 
sciences of mankind that the social world shall be con- 
trolled by them, so that vice and crime, and all their 
sources shall be suppressed, and Christian morality 
characterize the politics of mankind. All the prophe- 
cies apropos of Isaiah and Zachariah shall have their 
literal fulfillment during the period ; but during all this 
dominancy of the Kingdom of Heaven, there sleeps 



THE HISTOKY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 239 



among men, here and there,some who, though professing 
to be Christ's subjects, are infidels, in feelings and senti- 
ment diametrically opposed to the teachings of the gos- 
pel. Policy and weakness keep them in abeyance and 
in privacy. No attempt will be made during the cen- 
turies to organize opposition to Christ and His king- 
dom. But these anti-Christs will not remain idle. 

Their doctrine will gradually spread from individual 
to individual ; from family to family, and from com- 
munity to community until its leaders will deem it 
safe to strike a final blow, and annihilate the Kingdom 
of Heaven, so much detested by them. The attempt 
we have seen in prediction and what came of it. 



OMICRON. 



PARAGRAPH i. 

the second coming of Christ closes the gospel dis- 
pensation of the Kingdom of Heaven. A divine 
review now is had, and the destiny of the respective 
human operators disclosed ; the disposition made of 
the theater of operations stated ; and the new order of 
things in its place described. 

I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it from 
whose presence the earth and the heaven fled away ; 
and there was found no place for them/' Throne " is 
the emblem of supreme authority and dominion. A 
" white throne indicates the gospel righteousness on 
which it is founded. The earth still represents the 
nationalities of the world and the heaven their hu- 
man governments. The prediction is : that when Christ 
shall appear to judge the world in righteousness all hu- 
man governments, and organized nationalities will dis- 
appear forever — their mission will be ended. And 
I saw the dead small and great stand before God ; and 
the books were opened ; and another book was opened 
which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out 
of those things which were written in the books ac- 
cording to their works. And the sea gave up the dead 
(240) 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 241 

which were in it ; and death and the grave delivered 
up the dead which were in them, and they were judged 
every man according to their works ; and death and 
the grave were cast into the lake of fire. This is the 
second death ; and whosoever was not found written 
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." This 
vision, like all the preceding visions, is toisonic or rep- 
resentative. There have been brought to view 
heretofore two classes of dead." The souls under 
the altar, and the one hundred and forty-four thousand 
standing with Christ on Mount Zion, and the multitude 
which no man could number, in the one class, and the 
slain at the battle of Armageddon, besides the slain un- 
der the seals, trumpets, and vials, in the other class. 
The " death " of the former was the deprivation of the 
subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven of their religious 
rights and privileges by the- persecuting powers. The- 
death of the latter was by various providential judg- 
ments being forced out of the ecclesiastical organization 
to which they belonged ; and especially at Armaged- 
don, when their organization was completely broken 
up. The " sea " is the toison for the people as a mass 
without regard to national organization. When the 
latter class were killed or " died " they were buried 
in the sea. That is : as individuals they mingled with 
the people simply as citizens and not as ecclesiastics. 
" Death and the grave " are receptacles of the dead ; 
and represent, the one the mode of death, and the 
other the state of existence after death. The persons 
in them were excommunicated from all religious life, in 
connection with the ecclesiastical establishments, and 

16 



242 



PATMOS. 



were excluded from even the social world ; and were 
as little recognized by mankind as a man in his grave 
would be. Here then are two classes. The hierarch- 
ists and the subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven dur- 
ing the domination of the persecuting powers. The 
two classes are brought before the judge to be exam- 
ined, and their respective deeds exposed to all persons 
interested in the controversy between them. The 
books " are emblems of records of their doings. The 
records of the one class show that they were wrong ; 
of the other class that they were right. These that 
the sea gave up were they who had worshiped 
the beast and his image. Those that death and the 
grave gave up, were found written in the book of life. 
The former were cast into the lake of fire where the 
beast and the false prophet are. This is the " second 
death or a state of eternal oblivion as far as the fu- 
ture of the Kingdom of Heaven is concerned. Death 
and the grave,*' not the persons who had been in the 
grave (this is significant), were consigned to everlasting 
oblivion, never more to be known in connection with 
the Kingdom of Heaven. Now the old has passed 
away ; behold all things become new. " And I saw a 
new heaven and new earth ; for the first heaven and 
the first earth were passed away and there was no more 
sea.'' The first heaven, as we have seen, was the civil 
government that had been intimately connected with 
the Kingdom of Heaven from first to last. The first 
earth represents the nationalities under these govern- 
ments. The sea " is the toison for the masses of the 
people without regard to nationalities or governments. 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 243 

The sea was the locality in which originated the beast 
with seven heads and ten horns. So the people was the 
origin of the Roman empire, which we are to under- 
stand embraces, in the prediction of John's visions, the 
Roman civil establishment from Romulus to the last 
European government in succession from it, whose 
constitution and policy could be traced to the seventh 
form, or Christian Imperial Rome, as founded by Con- 
stantine the Great. There was no more sea " is a 
prediction that there would be no source whence could 
originate a civil dynasty like the Roman. The ** new 
heaven and the new earth are toisons for a new 
government and nationality of which Christ should be 
the head, and his people the citizens, and gospel princi- 
ples the constitution, when the Kingdom of God shall 
have fully come and his will be done on earth as it is in 
heaven. As preparatory to such a state of things Peter 
gives us a literal view. " There shall come in the last 
days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying 
where is the promise of His coming; for since the 
fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from 
the beginning of the creation; for this, they willingly 
are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens 
were of old and the earth standing out of the water 
and in the water, whereby the world that then was, 
being overflowed with water perished ; but the heavens 
and the earth which are now, by the same word, are 
kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judg- 
ment and perdition of the ungodly. 

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the 
night in which the heavens shall pass away with a 



244 



PATM08. 



great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
heat, the earth also and the works thereon shall be 
burned up. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise 
look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth 
righteousness. We recapitulate with a view to clear- 
ness of conception of the transition from the old to the 
new order of things. At the close of the millennial 
period, infidelity to Christ will culminate in the great 
apostacy. Suddenly Christ with his angels will appear 
in the divine cloud, and, like a flash of lightning, be 
seen at the same moment by all the people of the 
world. The hordes of infidels, who had persistently 
denied the divine Sonship of Christ, and who were 
doing all in their power to destroy them that believe 
in him, will be suddenly deprived of life like the Assy- 
rian host besieging the Israelites, one hundred and 
eighty thousand of whom were destroyed by an angel 
in one night. 

The living saints will be taken from the surface of 
the earth — into the cloud with Christ. The Arch- 
angel's trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ will 
be raised. Next will follow the resurrection of the rest 
of the dead ; and all will be brought in classes to the 
judgment ; like the classes described by Matthew ; and 
like those seen in vision, and above described to receive 
their doom according to their deeds. The surface of 
the earth will be bound over and obliterate every thing 
that has been directly or indirectly superinduced on it 
by the sinful condition of mankind ; after which the 
new heavens and new earth will appear, clothed in the 
beauty of Eden, a fit habitation of righteousness. To 



THE HISTORY 0¥ THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 245 

this new world, now a restored province of the heaven- 
ly world, John saw the holy City of the New Jerusalem 
coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a 
bride adorned for her husband. This heaven is yet the 
vision-heaven, where John had seen the heavenly 
agencies connected with the work of redemption going 
to and from their mission in the old world. The City 
New Jerusalem " had been built there out of materials 
gathered from the old world by the spiritual workers 
and was now complete, and ready to be unveiled in the 
new world, like a bride adorned for her husband." 
A city," a civil organization, is the toison for a relig- 
ious organization. The predicate *'New Jerusalem" 
determines the identity of the organization. As the 
old Jerusalem was beautiful for situation the joy of 
the whole earth," so the new Jerusalem excels in 
beauty, and is the joy of all heaven. It is the company 
of the subjects of the Kingdom of Heaven, gathered 
during the dispensation of the gospel, under the dom- 
ination of the persecuting powers ; they who have come 
up out of great tribulation and have washed their robes 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb ; they 
who had suffered for the word of God and for the tes- 
timony of Jesus Christ ; the souls under the altar cry- 
ing to be avenged on their persecutors ; the one hun- 
dred and forty-four thousand out of the twelve tribes 
of Israel ; the multitude which no man could number ; 
the one hundred and forty-four thousand standing with 
the Lamb on Mount Zion — who were redeemed from 
the earth ; — and who follow the Lamb whithersoever 
he goeth ; — the martyrs of the apocalypse; the here- 



246 



PATMOS. 



tics of history. These comprised the citizens of the 
New Jerusalem. They were now in their substantial 
resurrection forms ; and had come to take possession 
of the Mount Moriah of the new world. 

As the new Jerusalem appears, John hears a great 
voice out of Heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God 
is with man, and He will dwell with them, and they shall 
be His people, and God Himself shall be with them and 
be their God.'' When the New Jerusalem appeared on 
Mount Moriah and Mount Zion, it brought the taber- 
nacle of God with it, embracing the holy and the most 
holy places. In the most holy place God manifested 
His personal presence and held audience with the great 
high priest, while the other priests remained in the 
holy place in attendance upon the high priest. All 
this description is toisonic. As the martyr saints con- 
stituted the city, the new Jerusalem, in their midst the 
divine Being will localize himself, just as he is localized 
in heaven, which He made the throne of His domin- 
ions. There He will be seen in His cloud of glory. 

Jesus Christ the Son of God, will be the Great High 
Priest or Mediator standing in His presence, and the 
glorified intelligences whom we have revealed to us in 
vision, under the name of beasts or creatures, will be 
his immediate priesthood while the elders — saints for- 
merly glorified — will be the body of Levites in atten- 
dance upon His priests. 

Men, as such, belong to civil life. They represent the 
religious community of the world. God is now person- 
ally with them. They are consciously His people and 
He their God. As the old Jerusalem was the rallying 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 247 

center of the people of Israel, dwelling in every part of 
the land of Canaan in David's time, so the New Jerusa- 
lem will be the grand rallying center of the whole 
world. 

John continues : " And God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, 
neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any 
more pain, for the former things are passed away. 
Now that the persecuted saints were reinstated securely 
in the new world, the contrast is drawn between their 
present and their state in the old world. Then they 
had tears, and death, and sorrow, and crying, and pain 
inflicted by their persecutors. Now the former things 
are passed away. 

Then, upon seeing these events in vision, He, that 
sat upon the throne said to John in confirmation of the 
prediction, " behold I make all things new.'* Write: 
for these words are true and faithful. It is done.'' This 
is the grand consummation of the Kingdom of Heaven. 
As He said when John first saw him in the midst of the 
golden candle-sticks, so now at the end, he says, I am 
the Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end." 

He begun the Kingdom of Heaven on the earth, so 
now He has finished it. Now in vie w of these predicted 
wonders of redemption He renews the promise and 
motive to Christian activity. **1 will give unto him 
that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 
He that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will 
be His God and he shall be my son." 

But in contrast he utters a terrible malediction against 
the opposite characters. "The fearful, and unbelieving, 



248 



PATMOS. 



and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremon- 
gers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have 
their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brim- 
stone/' " Which is the second death." The first death 
was exclusion from all ecclesiastical rights and priv- 
ileges ; and ostracism from all church and state associ- 
ation. In contrast "the second death" is exclusion 
from the new world and banishment to everlasting obliv- 
ion. As a vial-angel proposed to give John a view of 
the harlot with whom the kings of the earth had com- 
mitted fornication, in the zenith of her glory, and her 
unhappy fate, so one of the same class of angels, pro- 
poses to show him the bride the Lamb's wife. This 
harlot, as we have already seen, claimed, before the 
world for hundreds of years, to be the affianced of the 
Lamb, but was eventually exposed by her paramours 
in her true character, who made her desolate and 
naked and ate her flesh and burned her with fire. 
Now John is carried away to a great high mountain 
and shown that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descend- 
ing out of heaven from God, — having the glory ot 
God, and her light was like unto a stone most precious, 
even like a jasper stone clear as crystal. This vision 
must be viewed in order to its interpretation, in connec- 
tion with other scenes coincident. John had a vision of 
the descent of the holy city out of heaven just after the 
new heaven and the new earth appeared. We bear in 
mind that when Christ came in the clouds of heaven the 
dead were raised according to the other Scriptures. The 
martyrs were raised at the same time in common with 
others. The earth was burned, the judgment set, and all 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 249 

were rewarded according to their works. The martyrs 
were adjudged to the highest position in the gift of the 
King in the new world. As soon as the new world was 
ready for occupancy the New Jerusalem, or the glor- 
ious company of martyrs, descended from the position 
they were occupying in the meantime on the right hand 
of the Judge, to the new world. 

To John they appeared to come from the vision- 
heaven. The angel desired John to place himself in 
a position where he could have the best possible view 
of this event in vision in order to be able to give a full 
description of it. His position was a high mountain, 
like Mount Olivet in its relation to the old Jerusalem, 
only the mountain was as much higher in proportion, 
as the New Jerusalem and the new world were more 
extensive in their dimensions than the old Jerusalem 
and the country of which it was the capital city. 

The description John gives of the city is toisonic of 
the excellence in every respect of the glorified mar- 
tyr throng. They had the glory of God. Everything 
of an earthly aspect was entirely wanting only the form. 
The same cloud in which the Divine Being had so often 
manifested himself formerly in the world and in which 
Christ came to judge mankind, enveloped the city. It 
was a focus of light, like a sun. And as the jasper, 
when prepared for its purpose of decoration, reflects, 
from its superior polish, a purer and richer quality of 
light than any other jewel, so this city reflected a ra- 
diance more nearly divine than any other existing ob- 
ject ; thus indicating an excellence of character sur- 
passing that of any other class of beings in existence. 



250 



PATMOS. 



It had a great and high wall. The walls of the old 
Jerusalem were built for protection and defense against 
its enemies. So these walls are toisonic of a state of 
perfect protection and security against any possible 
enemy. It had twelve gates. Gates are for ingress and 
egress, and are toisons for the different ways in which 
the martyr company had been accessible, while in its 
militant state. The twelve angels at the gates expresses 
the Scripture fact that the gospel dispensation had been 
conducted by the ministry of the angels of God. The 
names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel writ- 
ten on the gates, indicate that in the old world the 
martyr company was made up of persons from different 
sects of Christians, and bore, to some extent, their pecu- 
liarities, constituting a unity in variety, in harmony 
with all the works of God. 

The wall of the city had twelve foundations and in 
them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 
• This expresses the Scripture statement that the church 
of God is built on the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone — 
or historically after the sixth seal was opened John wit- 
nessed the sealing of the servants of God. They were 
taken from the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. 
These tribes analogy taught us were various Christian 
societies in distinct and separate organizations. We 
have here the names of these same tribes written on 
the gates, indicating that the citizens of the holy city 
were selected from the various tribes of the children of 
Israel. A toison teaching us that the members of the 
martyr host were drawn, not from any one sect, party, 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 251 



or denomination of Christians, but from all respectively, 
existing at the various eras of persecution. The walls 
of the twelve foundations of the city each had the 
name of one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, in- 
dicating that the city was built on the foundation of 
the apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner- 
stone. 

This is in total contrast with the foundation of the 
" Babylon,*' built by Constantine and his successors, 
by the agency of their ecclesiastical councils. That 
hierarchy was wholly characterized by human dogmas, 
in contradiction to and subversive of the gospel ; while 
the Kingdom of Heaven, whose subjects were those 
martyrs, was established on gospel principles which 
were preached and developed by the apostles. 

. The holy city was square in form ; a side being fifteen 
hundred miles long. But it was as high as a side was 
long, fifteen hundred miles. A square is superior to any 
other form of building a city. More residences of given 
dimensions can be built in it, with greater conveniences, 
than in any other figure, round, octagonal, or oblong. 
It is the perfection of geometrical shapes for that pur- 
pose. It is a toison for the perfection of all religious 
organizations that ever existed ; although made up of 
heterogeneous materials it is perfectly homogeneous as 
a whole ; a unique and harmonious community in con- 
trast to any association that ever existed ; especially to 
the great domineering hierarchy, whose great ambition 
it ever was to make the whole Christian world a perfect 
unity. Babylon was the largest city that ever existed 
enclosed by walls. It was ten miles square, with walls 



252 PATMOS. 

three hundred and fifty feet high, and more than eighty- 
feet in thickness ; and its hanging gardens looming 
above the houses made its height unsurpassed. It is 
made figurative of the Roman universal hierachy in the 
zenith of its greatness and glory, whose organizations 
embraced the population of all the nationalities cover- 
ing the territory of Christian Imperial Rome. Its head, 
or pope, received the homage of all the people of those 
nations, and was sustained in his proud position by their 
governments. It had no rival in greatness, power, or 
glory. The heretics, which it ruthlessly suppressed 
during the ages, were ever considered insignificant in 
numbers, and w^ere destroyed because their existence 
marred the unity of the vast establishment, and might 
prove a moth on the garment of the body politic that 
would eventually eat away its fiber and reduce it to a 
rotten mass. Now, this martyr host is found to be in 
greatness, in numbers, incomparable to that boastful 
city in its palmiest days. Ten miles square and fifteen 
hundred miles square are dimensions that bear almost 
ridiculous proportions to each other. If the great per- 
secuting hierarchy at any period of its existence could 
boast of a thousand million members, the martyr host 
which it supposed it had annihilated, is seen to number 
one hundred and fifty thousand million members; or in 
the proportion of one hundred and fifty to one. But the 
New Jerusalem was a cube as high, as long and wide, 
and hence its numbers are to be estimated by multi- 
plying its square contents by its height, indicating the 
vastness of the company gathered from the earth 
into heaven during the eighteen hundred years of 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 253 

persecution, from the advent of Christ to the year 
1789. 

The walls of ancient Babylon were built of brick, a 
material perishable and so common as not to give any 
intimation of the grandeur within. But the lofty walls 
of the New Jerusalem were built of jasper, an imperish- 
able stone, susceptible of a high polish, and in the walls 
was as clear as crystal, and so reflecting the glory of God 
that they shone like a sun, a casket that indicated the 
glory within. The walls of Babylon are toisons of 
the means of protection of the universal hierarchy 
which were only human. In contrast the means of 
protection of the martyr company are divine ; the 
wisdom and power of the Almighty. The build- 
ings of ancient Babylon were of brick, like the walls. 
They are toisons of the paraphernalia of religious wor- 
ship employed by the universal hierarchy. They were 
all human inventions and devices; but the medium of 
religious devotion of the martyr congregation was 
divine ; and in comparison with that of the hierarchy, 
in its pristine splendor, marked by a contrast as great 
as exists between common brick and gold polished so 
that it is as clear as glass. So there was just as 
striking a contrast between the principles underlying 
the organization of the hierarchy and that of this mar- 
tyr host, as there exists between an unornamented 
common brick foundation wall, and foundations con- 
structed of jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sar- 
donyx, sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprasus, 
jacinth and amethyst. The gates of entrance of old 
Babylon were brazen, but the gates of the New Jeru- 



254 



PATMOS. 



salem were each an entire pearl. Nothing could be 
more costly than these magnificent pearls. They 
were pearls of great price. Their value is to 
be estimated by their scarcity; the extraordinary 
human labor required to secure them, and the risk of 
human life in diving for them to the depths of the sea. 
So great was the contrast between the modes of access 
to membership in the hierarchy and the modes of access 
to the kingdom of heaven of which the martyrs were 
subject. The former were human rites. The latter 
faith in the Son of God and renewal of the Holy Spirit. 
The one set of gates were brass ; the other set were 
each an entire pearl. So the contrast is further seen 
in the streets of the respective cities. The streets of 
the one were made of sand, gravel, and bricks ; of 
the other were pure gold, polished like transparent 
glass, reflecting the beautiful images of the persons 
traversing them. Streets are for the purpose of com- 
munication and intercourse by the citizens ; and are 
toisons of modes of Christian communion. The modes 
in vogue in the great hierarchy were the ordinary cus- 
toms, and practices that social necessity, and church 
forms and ceremonies incident to worship introduced ; 
but the modes of communion among all holy beings 
are ordained by divine wisdom, and are sources of the 
highest enjoyment. The one sand; the other gold. 

Unlike the old Jerusalem, John saw no temple in this 
city ; just the tabernacle without the temple. The 
reason of this is evident. The tabernacle was a divine 
device. The temple of Solomon human. As in the time 
of David, the Lord manifested himself in the most 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 255 

holy place, so now in the city of God he needs no 
temple. He himself is the temple in connection with 
the Lamb. They comprehend every thing belonging 
to the divine worship. The city had no need of the 
sun ; neither the moon to shine in it ; or, in language 
terms, the marytr company needed no human supreme 
or subordinate rulers. God was their king, and ruled 
them through the Lamb or the Mediator. 

The nations of them which are saved shall walk in 
the light of it; and the kings of the earth do bring their 
glory and honor into it. Nations are toisons for 
Christian people, existing at the time, in organized asso- 
ciations. " Kings are their divinely constituted 
leaders. 

Besides the martyr company there shall live in the 
new world other glorified and risen saints of God 
formed into associations with divinely appointed lead- 
ers. These sainted communities shall derive their 
higher knowledge of divine truth and facts through the 
martyrs, who, from their more intimate connection with 
the divine Being and the Mediator his Son, are more 
competent to give instruction ; and whatever advan- 
tages, spiritual or intellectual^ their leaders shall acquire, 
shall be made to redound to the glory of the martyrs. 
And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day. 
(There is no night there.) This is a toison teaching 
that accessions may be made to the martyr com- 
pany from Christians who were not martyrs originally. 
The gates are always open. That is, the martyr com- 
pany shall always be accessible. 

By superior acquisitions others may be graduated 



256 



PATMOS. 



into their association. And they shall bring the glory 
and honor of the nations into it; or, in language terms, 
the advancement in excellence by the outside com- 
munities shall be credited to the martyr company. 
They constitute the great university of the new world 
and are the preceptors in the higher knowledge of 
God. 

But unlike any association of professed Christians in 
the old world, which were contaminated and disgraced 
by bad characters, no such characters shall ever be 
found in the New Jerusalem, only those who are writ- 
ten in the Lamb's book of life, or who are the subjects 
of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

" And he showed me a pure river of water of life 
clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God 
and of the Lamb. In the midst of the channel, and on 
either side of the river, was the tree of life which bare 
twelve manner of fruits ; and yielded its fruits every 
month ; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing 
of the nations and there shall be no more curse.'* The 
toisons of old Babylon are, at this stage of the vision, 
dropped, and John is transferred to the garden of Eden 
before the fall of man. This indicates that a state of 
things now exists in the new world like that state of 
glory, innocence and happiness. Only this difference : 
in the new state of things the creator is intimately as- 
sociated with the Lamb or Mediator, analogous to a 
personal presence in the garden, whence he would rule 
the new world he had created, he occupies the throne, 
the emblem of supreme authority and dominion, among 
the company of martyrs in association with the Medi- 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 257 

ator, his Son. Analogous to the streams flowing from 
the central mount of the garden of Eden to insure phy- 
sical life, health and pleasure, there emanate directly 
from the divine presence and power, influences to in- 
spire the heart with continual pleasure. Happiness 
shall be perennial because the streams never cease to 
flow. As the tree of life in the garden of Eden was 
planted there to be the antidote to any poisons, inad- 
vertently taken with food, and would have secured the 
immortality of an innocent race of beings, so here, 
in intimate connection with the sources of sustenance 
and pleasure, are the means supplied to antidote all 
mortal desires or aspirations, and thus secure a per- 
petual flow of substantial and spiritual immortality. 
This antidote is perpetually within reach. Unlike the tree 
of old from which the sinning pair were driven away 
and in consequence returned to dust, this fruit is 
always ripe and accessible. Like it the divine effluence 
into the minds and hearts of the glorified throng, shall 
mould them more and more into the divine nature, and 
change them into his image from glory to glory. As 
the leaves of the tree of life would have been a panacea 
for the physical ills of man, so these influences of the 
divine effluences among all the sainted world will result 
in their harmonious association, peace and happiness. 
There shall be no more curse. The curse of the ground, 
of labor for subsistence, of pain, sorrow and death, inci- 
dent to sinful man, is forever removed. 

The Divine Being will not leave this glorious com- 
munity as He forsook the cursed earth. He will not 
confine His local presence to His throne in heaven, but 

17 



258 



PATMOS. 



will be with them, — be seen by them, — have direct 
personal communication with them, and they shall di- 
rectly worship Him. "They shall see His face — and 
his name shall be in their foreheads/' He shall be to 
them a present personal God, and they shall bear the 
marks of His divine nature, in their countenances. 
"There shall be no night there/* Night is the 
emblem of all evil influences that operate during 
the prevalence of darkness. No such influence shall 
ever exist in the New Jerusalem. The powers of evil 
will be held in confinement in the lake of fire to which 
they were doomed just before the new world appeared. 
The state of probation will have been succeeded by 
the state of eternal rewards. They will need no hu- 
man teachers any more. God will unfold to their 
minds and hearts all his deep and glorious things which 
they are to communicate to the glorious throngs that 
frequent their gates. Thus with Him, this martyr 
throng — these heretics of history, shall reign forever 
and ever. 



PL 



PARAGRAPH i. 

^^g^ND he said unto me, These sayings are faithful 
and true : and the Lord God of the holy prophets 
sent His angel to show unto His servants the things 
that must shortly be done : Behold I come quickly : 
blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the pro- 
phecy of this book." This communication is made 
in language terms and not in toisons, and is to 
be understood according to the principles of lan- 
guage. The passage is again an assurance that the 
events seen in vision are predictive of the history 
of the Kingdom of Heaven ; things which must 
shortly be done," are events that are to occur in time 
and are events belonging to the rise, progress, and con- 
summation of the gospel religion, introduced into the 
world by the Son of God, and which He styled the 

Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven.'* The 
visions containing the events were marshalled before the 
senses of John by the agency of an angel, called Christ's 
angel ; some lofty intelligence delegated for that serv- 
ice. The crowning event of the series is announced 
again ; the second advent of Christ. The word 

quickly " is relative in its meaning and does not inti- 

(259) 



260 



PATMOS. 



mate that the second coming is imminent, but that the 
course of events is rapidly moving to this consumma- 
tion, and will take place in a short space of time, com- 
pared with the first coming after the promise made. 
"The gospel of the Kingdom must be preached in all 
the world for a witness to all nations," he said — then 
shall the end come/' We have seen when — in the 
order of events, not according to chronology — that 
end will come. We have also the intimation again 
that the Revelation as a book is understandable. That 
there is a mode of converting the objects of the vision 
into language terms, that are comprehensible by any 
ordinary reader; for how can any one keep the sayings 
of the prophecy of this book unless he can understand 
the medium of communication ? 

John says he saw and heard these events. They 
consisted of things that could be seen and heard in 
vision: — agents, scenes, — voices, — and he recorded 
afterwards what he saw and heard, and left the book 
to the seven churches of Asia to read the literal events, 
from these agents, scenes, and voices, which there is 
no doubt they formed a method of doing. It appears 
that the angel, employed to communicate with John, 
was a saint from the earth glorified in heaven. He di- 
rected John not to make a private matter of the com- 
munication, but to give it publicity, as the events were 
immediately to occur. Indeed they had already be- 
gun to transpire and the crowning event, the coming of 
Christ, was hastening on. Between the first and second 
coming would be a season of grace. 

At the second coming that dispensation of grace 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 261 

would close, as intimated by " He that is unjust let 
him be unjust still; and he which is filthy let him be 
filthy still ; and he that is righteous let him be right- 
eous still ; and he that is holy let him be holy still. 
Behold I come quickly : and my reward is with me 
to give every man according as his work shall be." In 
the meantime between the Alpha and Omega they that 
do His commandments are blessed, having a right to 
the tree of life ; and may have the privilege of finally 
being a citizen, an honorary citizen of the New Jeru- 
salem. But the cynics, and sorcerers, and fornicators, 
and man slayers, and idolaters, and those that love and 
make a lie, never enter there. They are doomed to 
the lake of fire. Such are the cavillers, — the hierarch- 
ists, — the anti-christs, the persecutors. Again : Jesus 
reiterates the direction to have these events related to 
the churches. The churches would recognize the au- 
thority to do this when told that he who commands is 
the root and offspring of David, David's creator, 
David's Son. The harbinger star of the rising glory of 
the new world, and its holy city the New Jerusalem. In 
view of these coming events and their crowning glory, 
the churches are to be exhorted to Christian activity. 
"The Spirit and the bride say. Come ; and let him that 
heareth say. Come ; and let him that is athirst come ; 
and whosoever will let him take of the water of life 
freely." 

Then follows the dreadful anathema in view of what 
was actually to take place in regard to the prophecies 
of this book. The anathema was intended to guard 
the prediction in its purity as it came from Jesus 



262 



PATMOS. 



through his angel. Should any one pervert the sayings 
of the book by adding to them, God would add to him 
the plagues written in the book. Should any one take 
away from these words, or make them read differently 
than intended by the Lord, God would take away his 
part out of the book of life and out of the holy city, 
and from the things (blessings) which are written in this 
book. 

PARAGRAPH 2. 

Again we have here the intimation that the proph- 
ecy of this book is understandable. There are 
methods in divine providence, or divine inspiration to 
interpret it ; and there is also an intimation that some 
men would have reasons of their own to suppress these 
methods of interpretation ; or in some way to nullify 
the meaning of the prophecy. The former presump- 
tion must have happened. And the methods of inter- 
pretation known to the seven churches and for a long 
time afterwards, was authoritatively suppressed. It is 
incredible that the meaning of the toisons of the vis- 
ion should not have been known to the seven churches, 
and all other churches after them. If it had been a 
sealed book it would not have been included in the 
sacred canon. It would have been a curious myth, and 
of no practical value to the world. When in the course 
of events the history of the church (so-called) under 
the organization of church and state, shaped their 
course so as to correspond to the prediction, as reduced 
to language terms, the leaders begun to have mis- 
givings as to the righteousness of their doings ; and es- 



THE HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 263 

pecially when the universal hierarchy was organized 
and began its operations to corrupt the institutions 
and pervert the truth of the gospel ; and to pursue 
with their maledictions and anathemas all dissent- 
ers ; and when their course of unrighteousness was 
pointed out to them as corresponding to the pre- 
dictions of the book ; and their establishment was 
proved to be the woman on the scarlet colored 
beast; one of two courses was open to them, either 
to reform and return to primitive principles and 
usages; or else suppress the written interpretation of the 
visions. The former there was no disposition to do. 
The latter could be easily done. A bull of the pope, 
backed by the civil powers, was all that was needed to 
take away from the words of the prophecy of the 
book.'* That would not be the only book, militating 
against their interests, that had been obliterated from 
the world's literature. Even the Bible itself had been 
censorized, — suppressed, — burned, and the men pub- 
lishing and circulating it, themselves burned at the 
stake. The inference from the premises is irresistible, 
that the method of interpreting the Apocalypse known 
to the seven churches was completely annihilated, — if 
not earlier in history, — by the Roman Catholic hier- 
archy. That is the reason, that although this method 
lies on the face of the Scriptures, yet commentators 
and exegetists have allowed it to slumber and the 
Apocalypse to remain a sealed book to this day. He 
which testifieth these things, saith surely I come quickly. 
Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus,'' John from his 
heart responds. So say all real subjects of the King- 
dom of Heaven. Even so come Lord Jesus." 



/ 



FIERY TRIALS; 



-^OR A—* 




an 




By Rev. R. H. CROZIER. 



The above is the title of a new book of thrilling interest, 
which critics predict will have a sale not surpassed by any- 
book ever published in this country — XJncle TTom's 
Cabin,'^ and "A Fool's Errand not excepted. 
It is written in strong and terse language, is full of dramatic 
interest, and will prove both useful and instructive to old 
and young. The object of the book is to bring before the 
reading public, in a pleasing and entertaining manner, a 
most important and yet a most neglected subject of inquiry. 
The arguments are clearly and forcibly put ; the characters 
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For the estimation in which this book is held by promi- 
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grand lesson, and should be in every home in the land. 



JOHN BURNS, Publisher, 

717 AND 719 Olive Street, ST. LOUIS, MO. 



Rev. B. M. PALMER, D. D., of the Presbyterian 
Church: The title of this portly book sufficiently indi- 
cates its apologetic character. The story whether wholly 
fictitious, or partly founded upon facts, is simpl, the vehicle 
of an argument for the truth of Christianity. It does not 
claim to be an exhaustive discussion of the Christian evi- 
dence, but only a popular presentation of portions of the 
cumulative arguments. The narrative style adopted by the 
author affords several advantages. The discussion is made 
entertaining to the general reader while the dialogue between 
the actors allows both sides of the controversy to be fairly 
presented. Above all, the results of Infidelity in the removal 
of all moral restraints from society can be distinctly shown, 
as is done with power at the close of this volume. Some 
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considerable vigor — ^for example, the argument for the exis- 
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the genuineness and authenticity in the latter pages. The 
book is full of dramatic interest as proven by the fact that it 
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Rev. W. C. L ATT I MORE, of the Baptist Church: "I 
have just read *' Fiery Trials with abiding interest and 
benefit. Its style is chaste and fascinating ; its tone pure 
and healthful ; its plot ingeniously conceived and admirably 
executed. The Evidences of Christianity run through the 
whole with adroitness and force at once convincing and 
irresistible. Had I the power, I would place a copy of this 
inimitable Christian romance in every family in the State. 
Dr. Archer's sermon alone is worth more than the price of 
the book. 



Rev. E. HAMVASY, of the Episcopal Church: Evi- 
dently the chief aim of the author is to bring before the 
reading public, in a pleasing and entertaining manner, a most 
important and yet a most neglected subject of inquiry. How 
many persons inquire into the Evidences of Christianity? 
How many have a correct knowledge of the Inspiration and 
Authenticity of the Bible? Excepting the Ministers of the 
Gospel, not one in ten thousand. So then when the latest 
scientific theories in regard to man's position toward his 
Creator allure people not only to Infidelity, but downright 
Atheism, such works as the " Fiery Trials " may do a great 
deal of good. It is not necessary to enter into the plot of 
the story ; it is enough to state that the interest of the reader 
is held in suspense from the beginning to the end. Read it 
and profit by it. 

WM. M. GREEN LL D., Bishop of Mississippi: I 
have read ''Fiery Trials " with a lively interest. Independ- 
ently of the able and popular defence which it makes of the 
fundamental truths of the Christian Faith, it presents to the 
reader a tale replete with incidents as various and remarka- 
ble as any ardent lover of romance could reasonably demand. 
The story is well told ; and notwithstanding occasional care- 
lessness of style, holds the reader in a pleasingly excited and 
anxious suspense to the very end. I bought the book, at 
first, simply from a desire to encourage a " home produc- 
tion; " but have been amply repaid by the entertainment it 
has given me. In the language of the Market, *' I have got 
full worth of my money." I regard it as a work calculated 
alike to profit and to please. In these days of Eationalism 
and Misbelief it may be of service to the young in guarding 
them against the cavils of Scientists, falsely so-called, while 
the lover of what is pure and beautiful in the domain of Fic- 
tion may find in it material of suflScient interest to satisfy a 
reasonable appetite. It has my best wishes for a wide circu- 
lation. 



CHRISTIAN OBSERVER. This is a story with a pur- 
pose, the author's object being to intermingle with the inci- 
dents of a romance, which he says are not altogether fiction, 
some strong refutations of infidel teachings. The author 
has also given, in the terrible and blighting curses which 
rested upon an infidel's family, a powerful demonstration of 
the curse which sin brings. The scenes of the story are laid 
in Mississippi and Tennessee. The interest of the story is in- 
tense from the very beginning, and is well kept up, as is 
demonstrated by the fact that the whole book was read 
through without once laying it down. And yet the author 
tells the romantic events in the life of his characters in a 
very straightforward matter-of-fact sort of way. To many 
who could not be induced to read a more solid work, we trust 
the book may prove beneficial, as Mr. Crozier meets and 
refutes, in a strong way, many of the cavils of the present 
day, against the Christian religion. If the work is read with 
the true spirit of investigation, we believe it will do good, 
and we hope it may induce many who are thoughtless and 
doubting to " investigate." 

Rev. J. D. CAMERON, of the Methodist Church: I 
have read at one sitting " Fiery Trials," by the Rev. R. H. 
Crozier, and it affords me pleasure to say that I have been 
entertained and instructed. I think the arguments in sup- 
port of the existence of God, the Divinity of Christ, and 
the genuineness of the Scriptures are unanswerable. I am 
satisfied the book will be extensively read, and believe it will 
do much good. 

H. H. CHALMERS, Judge of the Supreme Court of Mis- 
sissippi : I have read with interest and pleasure ' ' Fiery 
Trials." The arguments for the truth of Christianity are 
clearly and forcibly put, and so blended with the story as 
not to fatigue the average novel-reader. The story is well 
told and the characters strongly drawn. I cordially com- 
mend the book. 



Rev. J. T. CHRISJIAN, of the Baptist Church : It is 
with pleasure that I recommend this book. It is written in 
strong, terse language. The story is well told and has a 
thrilling interest to the end. The admirer of fiction can read 
with pleasure, and all with profit. I think only good will 
result from its publication. 

Rev. R. L. DABNEY, LL Z7— The narrative of Mr. 

Crozier, "Fiery Trials," founded as it is upon authentic 
events, displays the fruits of infidelity. The catastrophe has 
strict poetic truth and justice ; because it exhibits the con- 
sequences of such principles and rearing, according to their 
own real tendency, and because it thus collects the true les- 
sons of experience. The story bears this signature of artis- 
tic power and talent ; that the reader finds the characters 
live in his memory with the consistency and definiteness that 
belong to actual persons. The argument on the evidences 
interwoven with the events is good and sound, and is put 
with neatness and perspicuity. The book is a story; it inter- 
ests the reader by a series of incidents which have a certain 
color of romance ; but the lessons taught are good and pure. 
I feel glad of this book, chiefly because it makes powerfully 
for Truth. 

Rev. J. P. McMillan : My attention has been recently 
called to this book, written by Rev. R. H. Crozier, of 
Sardis, Mississippi. Mrs. McMillan, though teaching four 
hours a day and keeping boarding-house for nearly thirty 
persons, found time to read it all in less than three days. 
One of our staid doctors of divinity coming to preach a 
week, read it through before the week was haK gone. Most 
of our young lady pupils have read it because they could not 
help it, and many of them have ordered extra copies for 
their friends at home. It takes up infidelity by the roots ; 
is good to awaken the thoughtless, to guide the inquiring, 
and to remove the diflSculties of genuine converts. It is 
also a book with bottom facts for its foundation and of 
thrilling interest to both old and young. 



Hon, J. G. HALL, (Chancellor of Third District of Mis- 
sissippi:) I have read with great pleasure, Rev. R. H. 
Crozier's book, Fiery Trials, or, a story of an Infi- 
del's family." In my opinion, it is a work which cannot 
fail to be productive of much good. The presentation of 
arguments in favor of the truth of the Bible, in such shape 
as would be not only easily understood, but interesting to 
persons not disposed to read a mere theological discussion of 
the subject^ has been a want long felt. I believe this book 
in a very large measure meets that want. The argument 
throughout is strong and clear, yet simple and easily fol- 
lowed, while the narrative is full of interest, and often of 
great dramatic power, so that the attention of the reader 
never wearies. I most heartily commend the work as one 
which, if careful y read, must be productive of good not only 
to the skeptical, but to persons already believers it the 
Divine revelation. 

Gen. W. S, FEATHERSTON, Judge of Circuit Court: 
I have read " Fiery Trials " with pleasure, and, I hope 
not without benefit. It is a plea for the Christian Religion 
presented in a plain and attractive form. It will be read 
with interest by the young, and cannot fail to have a good 
moral effect on those who read it. It is a good work to be 
placed in every family library. 

Bound in English Cloth, - - - $2.00 
Half Morocco, Gilt Edges, - - 3.00 

Canvassers, both male and female are wanted in every 
Town, County and State to engage in the sale of this book. 

For full information, address, 

JOHN BURNS, Publisher, 

717 and 719 OLIYE SFTEET, - - ST. LOUIS, MO 



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